China's top economic decision-making body, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) accelerated its review process and approved 27 infrastructure projects with a total expected investment of 1.48 trillion yuan (US$219.43 billion) since the start of 2018. Of these, 16 worth around 1.1 trillion yuan were approved since the start of November. Despite concerns over a return to the debt-fuelled infrastructure investment policy halted in 2017, the new infrastructure projects were necessitated by the need to stabilise the economy and took precedent. Each of the top 10 infrastructure projects costs over 50 billion yuan (US$7.41 billion). The total investment for the 10 projects is projected at 1.158 trillion yuan over the next six years, or about 78 per cent of all newly approved infrastructure investment since the start of 2018. These 10 projects are in Shanghai, Jiangsu province, Wuhan, Guangdong province, Suzhou, Changchun, Shaanxi province, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Guangxi province and all are rail transportation projects including one hi-speed rail project.
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