In the first quarter, the "two new" policies (large-scale equipment updates and trade in of consumer goods) drove a year-on-year increase of 19% in investment in the purchase of equipment and tools nationwide, and a year-on-year increase of 4.6% in total retail sales of consumer goods, continuing to provide strong support for expanding consumption, stabilizing investment, promoting transformation, and benefiting people's livelihoods. The relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission said that since this year, the relevant departments in all regions and regions have made full use of the ultra long term special treasury bond funds to promote the "two new" expansion policy to continue to be effective. How effective are the "two new" policies in driving significant growth in consumption and investment? Look at a set of data. In terms of consumption, in the first quarter, driven by the policy of exchanging old for new consumer goods such as automobiles, home appliances, mobile phones, electric bicycles, and home decoration, the retail sales of communication equipment, household appliances and audio-visual equipment, and furniture products of units above designated size in China increased by 26.9%, 19.3%, and 18.1% year-on-year, respectively, with growth rates accelerating by 0.7, 8.4, and 6.4 percentage points respectively compared to January and February; The retail sales of cultural office supplies increased by 21.7%, maintaining rapid growth, and these four items alone drove the total retail sales of consumer goods to increase by 1.4 percentage points. Last year, positive results were achieved in the trade in of consumer goods. This year, we have taken advantage of the situation and strengthened our efforts to expand our market, with support funds reaching 300 billion yuan, doubling. The supporting categories for home appliances have expanded from 8 categories to 12 categories, and subsidies for purchasing new digital products such as mobile phones have been added. ”Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping said that as of 24:00 on April 27th, there were 2.814 million vehicles exchanged for new in China, 49.416 million units of 12 types of household appliances exchanged for new, 37.855 million new digital products such as mobile phones purchased, 40.906 million units of home decoration kitchens and bathrooms were "renovated", and over 4.2 million units of electric bicycles exchanged for new, driving a total sales of over 720 billion yuan. In terms of investment, in the first quarter, the purchase investment of equipment and tools increased by 19% year-on-year, further accelerating by 1 percentage point on the basis of the high growth rate in January and February, and 14.8 percentage points higher than the total investment. The investment in consumer goods manufacturing, equipment manufacturing, technological transformation in manufacturing, and raw material manufacturing, which are closely related to the "two new" initiatives, increased by 13.5%, 8.9%, 7.2%, and 4.3% respectively, with growth rates 9.3, 4.7, 3, and 0.1 percentage points higher than total investment, respectively. Zhao Chenxin, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated that large-scale equipment updates have driven an increase in investment in the purchase of equipment, tools, and instruments nationwide, contributing 64.6% to the overall investment growth and driving the overall investment growth rate to increase by 1 percentage point compared to last year. The "two new" policies have effectively enhanced consumer vitality and stimulated investment growth, while also driving the synchronous improvement of production and efficiency in related industries. According to data from the National Development and Reform Commission, in the first quarter, the added value of general equipment, specialized equipment, automobiles, intelligent consumer equipment, and household electrical appliances manufacturing industries above designated size increased by 9.4%, 4.1%, 11.8%, 11.4%, and 10% year-on-year, respectively; More than 2800 intelligent community recycling facilities have been added nationwide, with a total of nearly 14000 new facilities added since the "Two New" campaign; The recycling volume of waste electrical and electronic products increased by 70% year on year, the recycling volume of waste mobile phones on major Internet recycling platforms increased by 50% year on year, and the recycling volume of waste steel and nonferrous metals increased steadily. The relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission said that since 2024, the super long term special treasury bond has supported large-scale equipment renewal projects and actively favored private enterprise projects, with more than 80% of the funds supporting private enterprise projects in the fields of industrial equipment renewal and recycling. Ultra long term special treasury bond funds to support consumer goods trade in automobile, household appliances, mobile phones, home decoration and other fields are traditional advantageous industries of private economy. Data shows that in the first quarter, private project investment (excluding private investment in real estate development) increased by 6.0%, with private investment in manufacturing and infrastructure growing by 9.7% and 9.3% respectively, which is 0.6 and 3.5 percentage points higher than total investment in manufacturing and infrastructure, respectively. The 'two new' policies have effectively improved the standard level. ”The above-mentioned person in charge said that in the first quarter, 17 new national standards in the field of "two new" were newly released. As of now, out of the 294 national standards planned for revision in the "two new" fields in 2024 and 2025, a total of 185 have been released. In terms of equipment updates, 85 national standards have been introduced to support industrial transformation and upgrading, including energy consumption limits, equipment energy efficiency, pollutants, and carbon emissions. In terms of recycling, 43 national standards have been issued to support the high-level recycling of waste vehicle power batteries, waste electrical and electronic products, and retired photovoltaic modules. How will the "two new" policies be further strengthened as more supportive policies continue to be introduced? How much room is there to expand domestic demand? Zhao Chenxin stated that in the consumer sector, China has a total of 353 million cars and over 3 billion units of major household appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners. With regular updates and replacements, this can create demand worth trillions of yuan annually. In the investment field, the net asset value of China's total social equipment stock is about 40 trillion yuan. With the deepening of high-quality development, the annual investment demand for equipment replacement will exceed 5 trillion yuan. China is deeply implementing the new urbanization strategy, and every one point increase in urbanization rate can drive investment demand of trillions of yuan. Taking the construction and renovation of urban underground pipeline networks as an example, it is preliminarily estimated that about 600000 kilometers of various pipelines such as gas and drainage need to be updated and renovated in the next five years, which can create investment demand of about 4 trillion yuan. It can be said that there is a very realistic and huge potential for us to expand domestic demand, "said Zhao Chenxin. Focusing on large-scale equipment updates and trade in of consumer goods, more supportive policies will continue to be introduced. Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a notice that, together with the Ministry of Finance, the second batch of ultra long term special treasury bond funds of 81 billion yuan was issued to local governments in a timely manner to continue to vigorously support the exchange of old consumer goods for new consumer goods. The National Development and Reform Commission stated that it will fully leverage the inter ministerial coordination mechanism for the "two new" initiatives, strengthen overall planning and tracking, urge relevant departments in various regions to accelerate the review and disbursement of allocated funds, effectively alleviate the pressure on enterprises to advance funds, and ensure that real money and silver discounts reach consumers directly. In addition, updating and upgrading industrial software will be included in the scope of "two new" policy support to expand effective investment. (New Society)