The issuance of ultra-long-term special government bonds to support the "dual" construction is a major decision and deployment made by the Party Central Committee with an overall perspective, and an important starting point for promoting Chinese-style modernization, promoting high-quality development, and seizing the initiative in development.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the second plenary meeting of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party that "we must implement macro policies, issue and use ultra-long-term special government bonds, and strive to do a good job in the implementation of major national strategies and security capacity building in key areas."

This year's "Government Work Report" proposed to make good use of ultra-long-term special national debt, strengthen ultra-long-term loans and other supporting financing, strengthen top-down organization and coordination, and make greater efforts to support the "dual" construction.

All regions and departments earnestly implemented the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and The State Council, coordinated "hard investment" and "soft construction", and promoted the "dual" construction to achieve a good start.

The relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission said that this year will adhere to the top-down, soft and hard combination, give full play to the role of the department, increase construction efforts, speed up the work progress, increase the issuance of ultra-long-term special Treasury bonds, and make greater efforts to support the "dual" construction.

Highlighting the strategic, forward-looking, and overall nature of the project, priority will be given to major landmark projects across regions and river basins

On December 26, 2024, with the departure of flight MU5428, the new fourth runway of Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport was officially opened. "The fourth runway, 3,400 meters long and 45 meters wide, is parallel to the third runway and can meet the needs of various large passenger and cargo aircraft." Yin Dejun, executive deputy commander of Jiangbei International Airport Expansion Command, said that with all four runways put into use, the operation efficiency of the airport has been greatly improved, which will further enhance the function of Chongqing as an international aviation hub. At present, the T3B terminal project of Jiangbei International Airport is accelerating and strives to be completed and put into use in the near future.

The expansion is an important measure to enhance the service capacity of the airport. Jiangbei International Airport was built and put into use in January 1990, and has since been expanded three times in 2001, 2008 and 2012. By 2019, the airport has completed 44.78 million passenger throughput, and the design support capacity is difficult to meet the transportation demand. In order to improve the service capacity, the construction of Terminal T3B and the fourth runway project of Jiangbei International Airport will start in 2020, designed according to the passenger throughput terminal of 80 million passengers. After the "double" construction was started, the project was included in the project list. According to the fund management requirements and allocation procedures, after Chongqing Airport Group provides the project payment details, the relevant departments of Chongqing will directly pay the funds to the recipient of the project contract, and by the end of December 2024, the cumulative payment of 528 million yuan has been made using ultra-long-term special national bonds.

"Whether the funds can be in place in time directly affects the progress of the project. Issuing super long-term special Treasury bonds to support the 'double' construction, giving full play to the driving and amplifying role of government investment, reducing the financial pressure for construction projects, and effectively forming the physical engineering volume." Zhao Rong, deputy director of the Investment Department of Chongqing Development and Reform Commission, said that in 2024, the National Development and Reform Commission issued three batches of "double" project lists in Chongqing, involving a total investment of 194.5 billion yuan, which strongly supported Chongqing to accelerate the construction of an important strategic fulcrum for western development in the new era and a comprehensive hub for inland opening up.

In the "two-fold" construction, the National Development and Reform Commission, in conjunction with relevant departments, strictly selects projects in accordance with the top-down principle, highlighting the strategic, forward-looking and overall nature, and giving priority to the selection of trans-regional and trans-watershed major landmark projects.

We supported efforts to comprehensively improve deserted land, afforestation and grass planting, restore degraded forests, and improve grasslands on nearly 40 million mu of land, and successfully fought three landmark battles of the "Three North" project. On the basis of arranging to issue additional national bonds in 2023 to support the construction of 25 million mu of high-standard farmland in Northeast China, we will make extra efforts to arrange ultra-long-term special national bonds to support the construction of another 25 million mu, and promote the early construction of the all-black land in Northeast China into high-standard farmland... As of December 2024, 700 billion yuan of ultra-long-term special Treasury bonds for the "double" construction have been arranged in three batches to the project. Many projects are in the process of being promoted, and their effects will continue to be exerted.

Actively respond to the expectations of people's livelihood, and combine project construction with livelihood protection

Upgrade the 6-room ward to 2 or 3 rooms, appropriately add single rooms, renovate toilets, carry out heating water system, HVAC renovation, etc... At present, Hubei Third People's Hospital Yangluo District surgical ward renovation project is steadily advancing, is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. "After completion, it can effectively improve the existing wards and supporting facilities of the hospital, improve the medical conditions of the masses, and improve the level of medical treatment." Said Sun Jian, director of the health Bureau of Wuhan Changjiang New Area.

40 kilometers away, Wuhan 12th Middle School renovation and expansion project is also stepping up construction. "The project adopts the method of 'heaven into the earth, reconstruction and expansion', and builds a new modern comprehensive teaching building, increases the school scale of 12 classes, and also adds 12,600 square meters of three-dimensional sports ground and more than 3,500 square meters of underground sports ground." Xu Li, director of the Education Bureau of Jianghan District, Wuhan City, said that after the completion of the renovation and expansion project, it will maximize the use of space for schools in the central urban area, greatly improve the school conditions, and better meet the enrollment needs of high school students in Jianghan District.

Promoting equal access to urban public services such as education and health care for rural migrants is an important measure to implement a new type of urbanization that puts people first. To this end, the "double" construction takes the construction of ordinary high schools and hospitals in key cities as one of the tasks of "citizenization of agricultural transfer population".

We will support cities along the Yangtze River in accelerating the construction and upgrading of 13,000 kilometers of sewage pipe networks, eliminate 1,100 square kilometers of empty areas, and establish a long-term mechanism for their operation and maintenance. Support the "double first-class" construction of new university campuses, top-notch innovative talent training bases, national production and education integration innovation platforms, etc., to improve the teaching and research conditions in universities... The "two-fold" construction actively responds to the expectations of people's livelihood, combines physical investment with human capital investment, and combines project construction with people's livelihood protection, so as to achieve a number of people's livelihood benefits.

We should coordinate "hard investment" and "soft construction" and combine project construction with supporting reform

At present, Guangxi Tiane to Beihai Highway Bama to Pingguo section (Bama to Qiangwei section) project construction is non-stop. Baqiang Expressway with a main line length of 56.54 kilometers is an important part of G7522 Guiyang to Beihai Expressway, and is a new land-sea channel expansion expressway in the west. At present, the construction of key control projects is progressing at full speed, and it is expected that the whole project will be opened to traffic in November this year.

In terms of policies, formulate policies and measures to promote the development of container rail and sea transport, and promote the integrated development of customs supervision, information exchange, production scheduling and marketing subjects; In terms of planning, accelerate the implementation of the Master Plan for the New Land and Sea Corridor in the West and the Implementation Plan for Promoting the High-quality Construction of the New Land and Sea Corridor in the West in the 14th Five-Year Plan; In terms of institutional mechanisms, give full play to the role of the provincial and ministerial joint conference system of the new land and sea corridor in the West, and form a policy system for the construction of the corridor to complement weaknesses, improve services, increase coordination, and expand opening-up... In the construction of the new land-sea corridor in the west, all relevant parties pay attention to both "hard investment" and "soft construction", and work together to build and operate this landmark project well.

In the "dual" construction, all regions and departments should coordinate the "hard investment" and "soft construction", combine project construction and supporting reforms, formulate and improve planning, strengthen project management, and create a number of landmark projects.

We will speed up policy improvement. To study and formulate guidelines on optimizing the allocation of basic education resources in response to changes in the school-age population, and improve the overall allocation mechanism of basic education resources in response to population changes; We will study and formulate an implementation plan for improving the quality and expanding the capacity of higher education (2024-2028) to expand its supply and optimize its distribution.

We will strengthen planning and guidance. We issued and implemented policy documents on the planning and construction of high-speed railways along the Yangtze River and iron-water combined transport facilities at Yangtze River trunk ports, issued a notice on standardizing the requirements for approval and construction of civil transport airports, and issued guidance on strengthening the whole-process management and all-round supervision of high-standard farmland construction.

We will strengthen overall planning and coordination. In terms of railway along the Yangtze River, we should coordinate the transportation resources along the Yangtze River and optimize the railway transportation organization. In the field of construction of the three North project, the project management of the three North project will be fully realized, and a special team will be set up together with the National Forestry and Grass Bureau to conduct a comprehensive review of the project feasibility study report during the process of project application, review and delivery.

Yuan Da, deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that it will work with relevant departments to promote the "dual" construction from three aspects:

We will intensify construction efforts. We will continue to support key tasks such as ecological and environmental protection and green development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, new land and sea routes in the western region, building a public service system for rural migrants to become citizens, and improving and upgrading higher education. The scope of water conservancy support will be extended to large and medium-sized irrigation areas and large and medium-sized water diversion projects across the country. Projects such as the construction of intercity railways in key metropolitan areas will be included in the scope of support; We will carry out nationwide actions to effectively reduce logistics costs in the whole society.

Strengthen the combination of soft and hard. We will continue to combine project construction with supporting reforms, accelerate the formulation of planning policies and institutional innovation, improve investment mechanisms, and increase the overall efficiency of investment.

Accelerate the work schedule. On the basis of the list of about 100 billion yuan of projects issued this year in advance in 2024, another batch of project lists will be issued in the near future to promote the formation of physical workload as soon as possible.

Source: Chinese government website