According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first half of this year, private project investment (excluding private investment in real estate development) increased by 5.1% year-on-year, achieving stable growth. The recently held meeting of the Central Political Bureau proposed to "stimulate the vitality of private investment and expand effective investment". This means that in the second half of the year, investment work should further focus on efficiency and precision, expand effective investment space, and promote the sustained recovery and structural optimization of private investment in China. Positive policies boost confidence, and private investment is an important supporting force for stabilizing growth, adjusting structure, and promoting employment. The activity level of private investment can largely reflect the endogenous driving force of an economy. Affected by the decline in real estate development investment, the growth rate of private investment in China decreased by 0.6% year-on-year in the first half of the year. However, some investment highlights are still noteworthy, such as new energy vehicles, artificial intelligence, computer communication, general equipment, and specialized equipment manufacturing, which are all areas where private investment is growing rapidly. Looking at different industries, there was a noticeable differentiation in private investment in the first half of the year. Among them, private investment in accommodation and catering industry increased by 20.3%, private investment in infrastructure increased by 9.5%, private investment in culture, sports and entertainment industry increased by 8.4%, and private investment in manufacturing industry increased by 6.7%. The fluctuation of private investment growth rate is closely related to the process of China's economic transformation and structural adjustment. ”Zhang Xiaolan, Deputy Director of the Policy Simulation Laboratory of the Economic Forecasting Department of the National Information Center, stated that since the beginning of this year, with the promotion of the rectification of "involution" competition, some low-end production capacity is accelerating its clearance from the market. More and more private capital is anchoring its targets on the high growth track, which has led to a differentiation in the structure of private investment. Since the beginning of this year, the policy environment for private investment has continued to improve. On May 20th, the Private Economy Promotion Law was officially implemented. As the first fundamental law on the development of the private economy in China, this law has opened a new chapter in safeguarding the high-quality development of the private economy with the rule of law, effectively boosting the confidence of private enterprises in their development. Recently, the Supreme People's Court issued the Guiding Opinions on Implementing the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Promotion of the Private Economy, which put forward 25 opinions on judicial guarantees for the development and growth of the private economy from the aspects of market access, financing, and property rights protection. Not only that, a series of policy measures in the fields of finance, banking, industry, etc. have been successively introduced to promote the implementation of the Private Economy Promotion Law in a coordinated manner. Relevant departments have launched practical and effective measures, such as releasing a new version of the negative list for market access and promoting more than 3200 new projects with a total investment of over 3 trillion yuan to private capital, to help unleash the vitality of private investment. More importantly, the pace of building a unified national market has accelerated, and regional market barriers have been broken down, clearing obstacles and stabilizing expectations for private investment market access. ”Zhang Xiaolan said. Under the guidance of the "dual" and "dual new" policies, private investment continues to move towards new and green opportunities. Not long ago, the State Council executive meeting approved five nuclear power projects, including the Zhejiang Sanmen Phase III project, and the proportion of private enterprise participation increased from the previous highest of 10% to 20%. Nuclear power projects have always been an important driving force for expanding effective investment. With an estimated investment of about 20 billion yuan per domestically produced million kilowatt third-generation nuclear power unit, the total investment for the newly approved unit exceeds 200 billion yuan. At the local level, a dense list of private investment projects is being compiled to expand the investment space for private enterprises. Taking Jiangsu as an example, this year there are 228 provincial-level major projects invested by private enterprises, 27 more than last year, with a planned investment of 150 billion yuan. Projects in the fields of new generation information technology, new energy, high-end equipment, etc. are favored. Lu Dongxiang, Executive Director of Jiangsu Coastal Development Think Tank, said that encouraging private enterprises to actively participate in investment and development in competitive infrastructure fields such as nuclear power, wind power, and energy storage, while increasing efforts to promote high-quality projects to private capital, supporting private enterprises to participate in the "dual" construction and "two new" work, will bring more investment opportunities for private enterprises. The Private Economy Promotion Law has a dedicated chapter on "Investment and Financing Promotion", which legislates to guarantee "support for private economic organizations to participate in major national strategies and projects" and "support for private economic organizations to participate in government and social capital cooperation projects", providing a "reassurance pill" for private enterprises to invest with confidence and courage. Zheng Bei, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated that in order to support private enterprises to actively participate in the "dual" construction and "two new" work, efforts are being made to accelerate the improvement of the long-term mechanism for private enterprises to participate in major national project construction. At present, a number of major projects have been launched in the fields of nuclear power, railways, etc., and private enterprises will be guided and supported to actively participate in investment and construction in the fields of industrial equipment renewal and recycling. On August 8th, the first batch of two publicly offered real estate investment trusts (REITs) for data centers - Nanfang Wanguo Data Center REIT and Nanfang Runze Technology Data Center REIT - were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, respectively. It is reported that the construction and operation of the two major data center projects mentioned above are both funded by private investors. Their successful listing means that the financing barriers for private enterprises to participate in large-scale infrastructure projects have been eliminated. In the long run, this move will help deepen the innovation of investment and financing mechanisms in the field of new infrastructure, expand financing channels for private enterprises, and boost confidence in private investment, "said Xing Wei, a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the National Development and Reform Commission. In the future, China's REITs market is expected to further expand from data centers to industrial parks, warehousing and logistics, transportation facilities, and other fields, providing broader investment space for private capital. We will coordinate the existing policies of "hard investment" and "soft construction" and accelerate the implementation of incremental policies. The relevant person in charge of the Private Economic Development Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission stated that in the second half of the year, efforts will continue to be made to further stimulate the momentum and vitality of private investment from the aspects of legal protection, investment incentives, policy environment, and innovation drive. In addition to accelerating the improvement of the mechanism for private enterprises to participate in national major project construction, private enterprises have also received greater support in emerging industries, future industry investment layout, national major technological breakthroughs, innovation and construction of new technology and new product application scenarios, etc., helping private enterprises better understand "where to invest and how to invest". Next, we need to coordinate and make good use of various government investment tools, focus on expanding effective investment, effectively drive social investment with government investment, take multiple measures to stimulate the vitality of private investment, and promote the development of private investment. ”Sheng Lei, Deputy Director of the Investment Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated that the list of "dual" construction projects worth 800 billion yuan this year has been fully issued, and the central budget investment of 735 billion yuan has been basically issued. The orderly progress of key project construction and the accelerated formation of physical workload have played a supporting role in the steady growth of private investment. Continuous efforts will be made in "hard investment" and coordinated promotion of "soft construction". Only by combining "soft and hard" can we better promote the activation of private investment and tap into its potential. Xing Wei believes that in the future, it is necessary to further break down market barriers, optimize the business environment, reduce institutional costs through the construction of a unified national market, promote the establishment of an efficient and benign mechanism for private investment, and encourage private capital to invest, dare to invest, and know how to invest. Private enterprises are the driving force for expanding effective investment. Experts suggest that more private capital should be guided to participate in the construction of major infrastructure, social livelihood and other fields, in order to stabilize the expectations of the private investment market with greater development space and better play its promoting role in expanding domestic demand and stabilizing growth. (New Society)