INVESTMENT, an important engine of the Chinese economy, is expected to grow faster this year, allowing China to better cope with economic uncertainties in 2019, according to industry reports.

A report from the Economic and Strategic Planning Department of the Bank of China (Hong Kong) forecast a rise of 7.3 percent in China’s aggregated investment in 2019, up 1.4 percentage points from 2018.

Investment’s contribution to the growth of China’s gross domestic product will rise by 0.5 percentage points to 2.64 percentage points. In other words, about 40 percent of the year’s economic growth will be generated by investment.

Infrastructure facilities will continue to take a large portion, but the emphasis will be put on improving weak links and consolidating the less-developed areas.

Last October, the State Council issued a guideline on beefing up the investment in nine kinds of infrastructure facilities including railways, highways and waterways, airports, water conservancy, energy, and environmental protection as well as infrastructure conducive to agriculture and rural development.

Railway and highway construction will be mainly used to facilitate the implementation of significant development strategies, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Xiongan New Area.

Rural infrastructure construction will be used to enhance agricultural productivity and boost village development, while urban infrastructure construction will focus on government-subsidized housing, public transit, and drainage and waterlogging prevention systems.

Citing statistics from the National Development and Reform Commission, the report said in the past month, the economic planner approved infrastructure construction projects with an aggregated investment of 500 billion yuan (US$74 billion), which mainly involves intercity railway, rail transit and airports.

The Ministry of Transport, China Railways Corporation and Civil Aviation Administration of China have all released their infrastructural construction targets for 2019, including fixed-assets investment of 1.8 trillion yuan in highways and waterways, 800 billion yuan in railway investment and another 85 billion yuan in airport construction.(Xinhua)