China Plans New Demand Measures, Opens 88 Projects to Private Investment

A Spending Plan With More Than Infrastructure at Stake

China is preparing a domestic demand strategy for 2026 to 2030 while opening 88 investment projects to private companies, seeking 31.1 billion yuan in private capital. At an October 20 briefing, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) paired those plans with a promise to introduce additional economic measures as needed and speed up policies already announced.

The immediate challenge is a gap between what businesses can produce and what households and companies are willing to buy. Zuo Gang, deputy director of the commission's Department of National Economy, said external shocks were deepening, supply remained stronger than demand, and performance varied sharply across industries. He described the foundation and momentum of economic recovery as weak.

National Bureau of Statistics figures released on October 19 put gross domestic product for the first three quarters at about 107.11 trillion yuan, up 4.6% from a year earlier after adjusting for price changes. Domestic demand accounted for 74.8% of economic growth, making spending and investment within China central to the government's response.

The proposed strategy combines three tasks: encouraging consumption, expanding effective investment and changing rules that obstruct spending or business activity. Its practical reach extends from mortgage costs and childcare to reservoir repairs, private participation in major energy projects and places where companies can test new technologies.

How the Latest Measures Fit Together

The policy push follows a September 28 State Council executive meeting that called for additional measures, changes to fiscal spending and fuller use of unused local government borrowing limits. The meeting also called for preparations for further policies to strengthen demand.

The sequence shows how the government is combining immediate financial support with a longer planning cycle:

• September 28: The State Council called for additional policies, including support for employment, incomes, property and lending.
• From late September: Measures included central government subsidies toward individual housing loan interest, lower pledged supplementary lending rates and larger relending quotas.
• October 19: The statistics bureau released economic figures for the first three quarters.
• October 20: The NDRC outlined its domestic demand strategy and private investment measures. Departments also released 136 major application scenario projects.
• 2026 to 2030: The proposed domestic demand strategy covers the period of the 15th Five Year Plan.

Zuo said departments would monitor economic conditions, prepare policy options and introduce further measures when needed. The briefing gave no publication date for the demand strategy, detailed eligibility terms for the mortgage interest support or schedule for further policy announcements.

What Cheaper Finance Can Change

Housing loan interest subsidies can reduce the interest bill for eligible borrowers because public funds cover part of that cost. The central government measures announced since late September included such support for individual housing loans for the first time, alongside financial support for the services sector.

Pledged supplementary lending, often shortened to PSL, is a central bank funding channel for policy banks. Lower rates can reduce their funding costs. Relending is another channel through which the central bank provides money to financial institutions to support designated lending. The September meeting called for larger relending quotas for technological innovation, equipment upgrades, agriculture and small businesses.

Local government borrowing capacity is another part of the package. Measures announced since late September included arrangements to use 550 billion yuan of unused local government debt limits. The Ministry of Finance also specified that 250 billion yuan of unused special local government debt limits would be activated for investment, including the six infrastructure networks initiative. The two figures describe differently scoped borrowing arrangements and should be considered separately rather than added together.

Zuo also stressed implementation: checking preparations for projects that have yet to start, securing necessary resources, making approvals faster and accelerating funding through new policy financing instruments. For businesses waiting for construction orders, the key step is turning an approved project into work that actually begins.

Household Spending and Public Services Move Together

Retail sales of consumer goods and services rose 2.6% in the first three quarters, while retail sales of services increased 5%. The faster growth in services helps explain why the consumption programme reaches beyond purchases of cars, appliances and other goods.

The NDRC wants employment, income growth and confidence addressed together. Zuo proposed reasonably increasing the share of fiscal spending devoted to public services and strengthening broadly accessible policies that reach consumers directly. The plan also calls for removing unreasonable restrictions on consumption and expanding spending by visitors entering China.

Older people and families with young children are specific targets. Officials proposed expanding elderly care consumption, supporting childcare and increasing quality services for different groups. Cultural performances, tourism and sporting events are also priorities, alongside new energy vehicles and smart products.

The connection is practical: households make spending decisions around wages, job security and the services they need. Pairing consumer measures with employment and public services gives the programme a wider scope than a shopping incentive alone. The income distribution reforms proposed elsewhere in the strategy address the same question of how much households have available to spend.

Investment Extends From Major Works to Local Facilities

The investment programme brings together 109 major projects under the 15th Five Year Plan outline and the initiative described as the six networks. Officials also intend to use ultra long special treasury bonds and accelerate new policy financing, with support directed toward public welfare, technology, industrial upgrading and infrastructure resilience.

Zuo identified work that can affect communities directly: inspecting and upgrading ageing reservoirs, starting initial repair projects, building higher standard grain warehouses and improving existing storage buildings. City renewal and changes to the location of infrastructure and public service facilities are also part of the approach.

Population changes and migration will help guide where facilities are placed. Officials described the goal as combining investment in physical assets with investment in people, including developing human resources and meeting needs throughout different stages of life. In plain terms, the programme concerns both buildings and the people expected to use them.

Investment figures show where spending was already growing. In the first three quarters, investment in intellectual property products rose 9.3%, investment in high technology industries increased 4.9%, and equipment investment grew 9.7%. Construction was continuing on the Sichuan to Tibet railway; the Pinglu Canal had been completed and entered trial navigation; and work had started on the main Three Gorges water transport channel project and Guangzhou's new airport.

Private Companies Get Projects and a Promise on Unpaid Bills

Liu Dan, deputy director of the NDRC's Private Economy Development Bureau, said two batches of project recommendations had offered private businesses 88 opportunities seeking 31.1 billion yuan in private investment. Companies and project organisations had held more than 300 consultations and exchanges, according to preliminary figures.

Some popular projects attracted expressions of interest from more than 20 private companies, and some projects had made substantive progress. Liu said the recommendations were intended to reduce the information gap between companies seeking investments and organisations seeking investors.

Liu described the projects as an invitation to private businesses. In translated remarks, she called them a:

Sincere invitation.

The proposed follow through has three parts: remove hidden entry barriers, improve access to resources and open more places where businesses can apply their products. Officials specifically named nuclear power, hydropower and major water projects as areas for introducing private capital. They also promised greater private participation in competitive infrastructure markets and the six networks programme.

Unpaid bills are part of the same investment problem. Liu pledged a stronger effort to resolve money owed to private companies, alongside better access to finance, data, talent and major research facilities. A company considering a new project needs cash to pay employees and suppliers; collecting money already owed can be as relevant to that decision as obtaining a new loan.

136 Projects Offer Places to Test Technology

The 136 major application scenario projects released on October 20 add a different kind of opportunity. An application scenario is a real setting in which a technology, product or business model can be tested for practical use. It connects an invention with an organisation that may be able to use it.

The projects cover five categories: new industries and emerging fields, industrial upgrading, applications within particular sectors, public administration and services, and everyday public needs. Nearly half fall within the strategic emerging industries and future industries covered by the 15th Five Year Plan outline.

Together, the projects involve promoting more than 1,700 technologies and more than 1,200 products, as well as developing more than 2,200 standards and specifications. Those standards matter because wider commercial use requires agreed rules about how products operate and how organisations use them.

The NDRC said eligible projects could receive coordinated funding support, while local authorities were encouraged to provide provincial budget investment and help with preliminary costs. Suitable projects may publish lists of technologies, products and business models they want to validate, giving private companies and smaller businesses opportunities to participate.

The commission plans to track projects through a regularly updated register. Liu also proposed organised exchanges involving departments, local governments, state enterprises and private businesses, linking access to public and industrial settings with the broader investment programme.

Technology Gains Meet the Need to Upgrade Older Industries

Zuo said newer growth drivers, including advanced manufacturing, the smart economy and modern services, contributed more than 40% of economic growth in the first three quarters. He also cited China's tenth place in the 2026 Global Innovation Index.

The figures presented at the briefing described a broad industrial shift. Zuo said cumulative global downloads of China's open source AI models exceeded 10 billion, Chinese humanoid robot shipments represented more than 90% of the global total, and overseas licensing of innovative medicines reached $130 billion in the first three quarters, close to the previous full year's total.

New energy vehicles reached a penetration rate of 53.6%. High technology manufacturing and equipment manufacturing recorded growth in added value that was respectively 9 and 4.9 percentage points faster than industry above the designated size threshold. Zuo also cited a data industry exceeding 6 trillion yuan, services growth of 5.2%, and machinery and electrical products accounting for more than 60% of exports.

Ren Zhongbao, deputy director of the NDRC's Department of Innovation and High Tech Development, placed traditional manufacturing at the centre of further change. It accounts for 80% of manufacturing added value, he said, and supplies the industrial base from which newer sectors develop. His approach combines digital and green upgrades to existing factories with support for emerging technologies.

Ren named quantum technology, biological manufacturing, brain computer interfaces, hydrogen, nuclear fusion, embodied intelligence and sixth generation mobile communications as promising fields. He called for mechanisms to increase investment and share risks, alongside exploration of technical approaches, practical applications, business models and regulatory rules.

Market Rules Are Part of the Demand Strategy

The NDRC's third strand is to improve the rules governing domestic trade and investment. Officials proposed regulations for building a unified national market, common basic rules for property protection and market entry, and changes to statistics, taxation and government assessment systems.

For a business, those measures concern the conditions for operating across different places: gaining entry to a market, protecting assets and moving goods or services to customers. Officials also proposed better connected market facilities and lower distribution costs, alongside reforms to local government investment and financing.

The different parts of the programme address different points in the spending chain. Household measures target purchasing power and services. Project financing targets construction and equipment orders. Private investment measures address entry, unpaid bills and access to customers. Technology trials provide places to turn new products into practical commercial activity.

Zuo's assessment explains why the government is pursuing all of them together. Advanced industries are expanding, yet demand remains weaker than supply. The next stage of the programme is to put announced financing into use, move prepared projects into construction and publish the domestic demand strategy covering 2026 to 2030.

Key Points

• The NDRC is preparing a domestic demand strategy for 2026 to 2030 and says further economic measures will be introduced as needed.
• GDP grew 4.6% in the first three quarters, with domestic demand accounting for 74.8% of growth.
• Consumption measures cover public services, employment, household incomes, goods, elderly care, childcare and tourism.
• Two batches of 88 projects seek 31.1 billion yuan in private capital and have generated more than 300 consultations and exchanges.
• A separate programme of 136 application scenario projects offers settings for testing technologies, products and business models.
• Officials also pledged action on unpaid bills owed to private companies, hidden market entry barriers and investment financing.