Ministry champions projects to help relieve downward economic pressure

The Ministry of Water Resources is promoting the construction of water conservancy projects, hoping they can play a prominent role in relieving the country from downward economic pressures.

From January to April, almost 200 billion yuan ($30 billion) in investment was put into water conservancy infrastructure across the country, up by 45.5 percent from the same period last year, according to the ministry on Tuesday.

The ministry plans to see the investment reach at least 800 billion yuan this year.

Since the beginning of the year, the country has experienced "unexpected changes in both the international and domestic environments and intensified downward pressure on the domestic economy", it said.

Against that backdrop, the ministry and other relevant government bodies have rolled out measures to promote the development of water conservancy projects "to effectively promote socioeconomic development and help reinforce the fundamentals of the macroeconomy".

Water conservancy investment could provide effective impetus to economic development, Wei Shanzhong, vice-minister of water resources, said at a news conference last month. Every 100 billion yuan of water conservancy investment can drive GDP growth by 0.15 percent and also create 490,000 new jobs.

Serving public welfare, water conservancy projects previously mainly relied on government investment for financing. To increase investment channels, however, the ministry has taken measures such as tapping the potential of government bonds, financial funds and private capital.

The ministry, in cooperation with China Development Bank, will guide local governments to make full use of the country's financial preferential policies on medium and long-term loans to serve water conservancy development, it noted.

The release said the ministry will also introduce a guideline for piloting real estate investment trusts and preferential policies on public-private partnerships for water conservancy development. More training programs will be provided to officials from local governments on how to use government bonds.

From January to April, with the help of government bonds, 72 billion yuan in investment was raised for 830 water conservancy projects across the country, up by 115 percent year-on-year, the ministry said.

The ministry also noted satisfying progress in major water conservancy projects at the national level, as well as projects in rural areas. Roughly 20 billion yuan in investment, for example, has been made for developing rural water supply projects, benefiting almost 6.7 million rural residents.

The ministry has vowed a series of other measures to ensure that the construction of major projects can be launched as scheduled.

For 55 national water conservancy projects and another six new large-scale irrigated areas, it said, the ministry will set deadlines for all the procedures of each of the projects.

Responsible departments and officials will be specified for each of them.

Measures will be taken to strengthen accountability in promoting the work. Those projects or regions that lag in their progress will be identified and the responsible officials will be summoned, it said.

On May 10, the ministry held a special conference to promote the launching of major water conservancy projects.

The ministry will intensify its communication with other government bodies to accelerate the progress of procedures needed before project commencement, including government examination and approval of land use and environmental impact assessment, Wei, the vice-minister, told the conference.