How to prevent “new infrastructure” such as 5G and artificial intelligence from “flooding”

As we all know, the current epidemic has a certain impact on my country’s economy. Is the “new infrastructure” intended to “stimulate” the economy through large-scale construction? Experts believe that the central government has deployed “new infrastructure” many times in recent years, not a new “stimulus” In the implementation of the plan, the old ways of “flooding the water” and “spreading the stalls” should not be followed.

“New infrastructure” is becoming one of the focuses in the field of economic construction, but how to avoid the detours of traditional infrastructure construction, especially how to get rid of “government arrangements” and avoid problems such as “rushing up” and overcapacity, needs to be attract attention.

Give full play to the role of the market

Infrastructure is the cornerstone of economic and social development and plays a strategic, fundamental and leading role. my country’s traditional infrastructure construction has made great achievements, but there are also some problems in the specific implementation in the past. At present, how should new infrastructure construction take a new path and achieve high-quality development?

“‘New infrastructure’, especially digital infrastructure, is of great significance to changing the situation of insufficient new kinetic energy and low technical content, and needs to be vigorously developed, but we must pay attention not to take the traditional old road, especially not to engage in ‘government-arranged’. It’s rushing up’.” said Liu Shangxi, president of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences. Ren Zeping, chief economist of Evergrande Research Institute, also believes that the key to starting a new round of infrastructure construction is “new”, and a new round of infrastructure construction must be promoted through reform and innovation.

In traditional infrastructure construction, the government often plays an important role. To develop “new infrastructure” such as 5G base stations, UHV (power Internet of Things), data centers (cloud computing), artificial intelligence, and industrial Internet, how to handle the relationship between the government and the market?

Huang Qunhui, director of the Economic Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that “although infrastructure is generally public and requires advanced planning and investment by the government, in order to achieve long-term economic efficiency, its construction must also respect the laws of the market.”

Liu Shangxi said that, unlike traditional infrastructure, “new infrastructure” is mainly digital infrastructure with high technology content, rapid development and changes, and must be coupled with the needs of the market and enterprises, so it should be dominated by the market. “The government should create conditions for the development of ‘new infrastructure’, formulate rules and standards, and provide a good business environment, rather than direct investment and projects. If the government directly undertakes a large-scale project, it may increase the debt risk, and it will not be able to pull The economic effect.” Liu Shangxi said.

Ren Zeping proposed that in the field of information “new infrastructure”, in addition to 5G base stations, public big data centers and other projects, the government should fully allow the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation, mainly by formulating industry rules, facility standards, and industrial planning and layout. Promote the orderly operation of the market.

Resolutely do not engage in “flooding”

Huang Qunhui believes that the new infrastructure is very different from the traditional infrastructure. On the one hand, the market prospects are uncertain, and the applicability of selective industrial policies is not high. On the other hand, driven by the market mechanism in recent years, there have been “Therefore, the ‘new infrastructure’ needs the guidance of the government, but it should not intervene too much directly. Especially in the context of the current downward pressure on the economy and the enthusiasm of local governments for investment, it is even more necessary to maintain a high degree of enthusiasm for this. wide awake”.

Liu Shangxi said that the “new infrastructure” must allow the market mechanism to fully function and be dominated by the market. “It is necessary to stimulate the enthusiasm of private investment and attract social capital to invest in ‘new infrastructure’. At present, it is necessary to innovate and develop the cooperation model between government and social capital, namely the PPP model, to form an effective carrier for cooperation between social capital and local governments.” Liu Shangxi said.

Experts pointed out that during the implementation of the project, it is necessary to fully consider the actual needs of various places, natural geographical conditions, and the basis of network layout, and take the overall optimization of the infrastructure network as the yardstick to prevent localities from rushing forward regardless of conditions, resulting in new excess capacity. .

Focus on high-quality development

In the face of important development opportunities, how does “new infrastructure” take a new path?

“For new infrastructure, the next step is to speed up the promotion of high-quality development.” Zheng Jian, deputy director of the Basic Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the first is innovative development. It is necessary to further strengthen the planning and guidance of new infrastructure construction, and innovate related systems and mechanisms. , strengthen forward-looking, guiding technology research and development and innovation. The second is to integrate development, strengthen resource integration, co-construction and sharing, promote synergy and integration, and improve the efficiency of resource element allocation. “It is particularly important to take the construction of new infrastructure as the driving force to promote the optimization of services and improve the efficiency of traditional infrastructure, to coordinate and promote the construction of more projects such as smart transportation, smart grid, and smart cities, and to build projects that meet the development needs of smart economy and smart society. infrastructure system.” Zheng Jian said.

Ren Zeping believes that because most of the “new infrastructure” in the information category belongs to new technologies and new industries, they need support from fiscal, financial, industrial and other supporting policies that are different from traditional infrastructure. In terms of industrial policy, it should be incorporated into national strategies and local economic and social development plans.