SOEs sustain project progress throughout holiday

While many people in China took more than a week off from work to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day, State-owned builders continued working through the holiday to complete key projects on schedule, reflecting the nation's drive to accelerate infrastructure construction and sustain the economic momentum, a priority amid headwinds.

Major State-owned enterprises, including China State Construction Engineering Corp and China Railway Construction Corp, reported progress on projects nationwide during the holiday, including some projects key to national development, which prioritizes transportation, utilities and other development goals.

According to China State Railway Group Co Ltd, the national railway operator, the second Shanghai-Nanjing intercity high-speed railway started operating on Sept 28 — one day before the eight-day holiday began. The railway operator said the rail route came online just in time to facilitate trips between the two major cities in the Yangtze River Delta region.

The new line will have trains running between Shanghai and Nanjing, Jiangsu province, journeying 279 kilometers at up to 350 kilometers per hour and stopping in eight cities along the way, the company said.

Also, according to recent project reports by China Railway 24th Bureau Group Corp (CR24), a CRCC unit that has been engaged in many major infrastructure projects in Zhejiang province, its teams working on Wenzhou North Railway Station linked by the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-speed Railway, Jinkeqiao Avenue in Shaoxing, Xinchenghe area renovation project in Ningbo's Cixi and Jinhua-Jiande High-speed Railway all continued to progress during the holiday, with special shifts and building plans arranged during the period so that as many employees as possible could enjoy the holiday.

Construction of the sixth bid of Wenzhou North Railway Station, which was renovated from the previous Yongjia Station, progressed steadily as employees ramped up preparations for laying rails during the National Day holiday. On the Xin'an River railway bridge on the Jinhua-Jiande High-speed Railway, more than 80 employees stayed at the construction site during the holiday, working in shifts to ensure the project remained on a steady track, CR24 said.

On a nine-year compulsory education project in Cixi, which is a key local livelihood project and part of the Xinchenghe area renovation project, as construction of major buildings nears the scheduled completion date of Oct 8, all team crews held their positions during the holiday to ensure construction quality and progress, CR24 said.

China Construction Second Engineering Bureau Co Ltd, a CSCEC unit, said in a report that its builders renovating a community established in the 1990s in Beijing continued their work during the holiday to ensure uninterrupted progress, aiming at an earlier completion date so the residents can resettle as soon as possible.

Infrastructure investment has been a key driver of China's economic growth this year, as the government has pumped in 1.83 trillion yuan ($254.2 billion) into transportation projects to spur the economy in the first half, a year-on-year increase of 9.1 percent, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Given a relatively weak performance in trade and real estate, the economy needs the infrastructure sector to be a strong driving force, especially in lifting employment, which will see more support from the sector, said Long Chaocan, an investment consultant with China Galaxy Securities Co Ltd.

"As the nation is still weighed down by many factors, stronger efforts to boost domestic demand are needed. Therefore, entering the latter half of the year, infrastructure investment will remain a key pillar shoring up the economy as such projects can boost domestic demand and market confidence. Measures such as expanding fiscal spending and effective investment, and more support for the real estate sector will also help," Long added.