A drone photo taken on March 6, 2025 shows the closed Heyuancun Grand Bridge of Baotou-Yinchuan High-speed Railway in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The Heyuancun Grand Bridge was successfully closed on Thursday, marking the completion of the bridges and tunnels within the Inner Mongolia section of Baotou-Yinchuan High-speed Railway, which links Baotou in Inner Mongolia and Yinchuan in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Photo: Xinhua)

Transportation infrastructure investment is set to play a bigger role in supporting the economic recovery in the second half of this year, Chinese analysts said, as the country's state railway operator reports steady railway investment growth.

Construction of China's railways has made stable progress in the first eight months of 2025, with fixed-asset investment expanding 5.6 percent year-on-year, the same pace as in the first seven months, according to the country's railway operator.

Fixed-asset investment in the railway sector reached 504.1 billion yuan ($70.81 billion), China State Railway Group Co said in a press release sent to the Global Times on Sunday.

Railway investment has maintained high-quality growth, the company said, noting that railway investment played a role in stimulating investment in society as a whole, and injected new impetus into further expanding domestic demand and promoting the economic recovery.

The growth rate of infrastructure investment, including in transportation and major projects, is expected to expand in the remaining months of the year, benefiting from the issuance of special government bonds and local government special bonds and the continued injection of funds, a Chinese analyst said.

Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the Forum 50 for Digital-Real Economies Integration, told the Global Times on Sunday that fixed-asset investment, mainly infrastructure investment, is poised to be a main growth driver for the world's second-largest economy in the remaining months of the year.

"As exports and the consumption sector potentially face more downward pressure in the coming months, due to rising uncertainties, the government has leeway in lending more fiscal support to infrastructure investment, as a controllable and manageable way to drive the economy forward to achieve the growth goals," Hu said.

According to the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee held at the end of July, which set the tone for the country's economic policy approach in the second half of the year, macro policies should be intensified in a sustained and timely manner. It urged rigorous implementation of a more proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy to strengthen their effectiveness, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

China State Railway Group Co said that it has been accelerating railway construction this year and has achieved positive results, assisting regional and social development. A section of the Chongqing-Xiamen high-speed railway (HSR) has been put into operation, while construction work was finished and testing began on a section of the Shenyang-Jiamusi HSR. Preliminary work on the Yining-Aksu railway in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Wenzhou-Fuzhou HSR got underway swiftly. 

The construction of HSRs such as the one connecting Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province and Xiamen in East China's Fujian Province enhances connectivity between city clusters of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, boosting the vitality of regional coordination and development, the China News Service reported on September 10, citing experts.

China's fixed-asset investment scaled up in the first seven months, with total investment up 1.6 percent year-on-year to more than 28.82 trillion yuan, with fast-growing capital flowing into manufacturing, according to data released in August by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Compared with investment in the real estate sector and the manufacturing sector, infrastructure investment will take a more active role in supporting the economic recovery, Hu said.

Attending a press conference on July 21, Minister of Transport Liu Wei said that major tasks set in the transportation plan for the country's 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), including HSR mileage and the urban rail transit access rate, are expected to be completed by the end of this year.