At an online press conference on June 16, China's National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC) spokesman Meng Wei sought to project that China's economic recovery
is underway He said electricity consumption from January to May this year, increased by 2.5%
year-on-year. Among them, the electricity consumption of the primary, secondary, tertiary, and
residential industries increased by 9.8%, 1.4%, 1.6% and 8.1% respectively year-on-year. In
the same period, the NDRC approved a total of 48 fixed asset investment projects with a total
investment of 654.2 billion yuan. On progress of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road",
he claimed, 'the circle of friends who jointly built the "Belt and Road" continued to expand'
and said on May 27, the Chinese government and the Kiribati government signed the
"Implementation Plan of the Government of the People's Republic of China and the
Government of the Republic of Kiribati on Jointly Promoting the Construction of the "Belt and
Road". In May, there were 1,357 trains of China-Europe trains, an increase of 187 trains
compared with April, and from January to May, 6,157 trains were operated by China-Europe
freight trains showing a good development trend of "stable progress". He added that on June 3,
the China-aided East Bay Expressway in Pakistan's Gwadar opened to traffic, and the external
connection road in the Gwadar port area was officially opened. Meng Wei also said that the
release of 3 million tons of summer management fertilizer from the temporary reserve of
Xiaguan fertilizer had eased the situation. In the first ten days of June, the national urea price
was mainly stable, and the quotations in Hubei, Hunan, Xinjiang, and other places also declined.
Answering questions, Meng Wei said since May, the overall epidemic situation across the
country has shown a downward trend, the normal production and living order has been restored
at an accelerated pace, and the economic operation has gradually stabilized. The data released
by the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday showed that major economic indicators have
shown marginal positive changes. Stating there had been some positive changes in the
economic operation, he added 'there are still many challenges for the stable recovery of both
the supply and demand sides' and that 'We are currently at a critical juncture in determining the
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annual economic trend'. Particular reference was made to the encouragement given to the
private sector. He asserted that since the beginning of this year, the National Development and
Reform Commission has resolutely implemented the decisions and deployments of the Party
Central Committee and the State Council to ensure a stable and orderly energy supply across
the country.
((Comment: The Gwadar East Bay Expressway starts from Gwadar Port in the south, with a
total length of 19.49 kilometres. The end point is connected to Pakistan National Highway 10.
It is one of the early harvest projects of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.)
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