Welcome to the Party's 20 special issue: Accelerating optimization and upgrading of China's construction

The construction industry is the pillar industry of the national economy. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the transformation and upgrading of China's construction industry is moving from a construction power to a construction power. China has deepened the reform of the "control service" in the construction industry and the approval system for engineering construction projects, improved the supervision system and mechanism, strengthened quality and safety management, optimized the business environment, and promoted the coordinated development of smart construction and new building industrialization.

In the past 10 years, the status of the construction industry as a pillar industry of the national economy has become more solid, the modernization of the construction industry has been greatly improved, and the quality of the project has been steadily improved. A number of world-class landmark projects such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Beijing Daxing International Airport have been completed, demonstrating the strong comprehensive national strength of "Built in China".

An important period of transformation and upgrading

The 10 years since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is an important period for the transformation and upgrading of China's construction industry, and a series of representative projects are the enrichment and display of the transformation and development results of the construction industry, and are also the best business card of "Built in China".

Li Rusheng, chief engineer of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said the construction industry has been expanding in scale in the past 10 years. The added value of the construction industry increased from 3.69 trillion yuan to 8.01 trillion yuan, accounting for over 6.85 percent of GDP, and the position of a pillar industry in the national economy continued to be consolidated. In 2021, the total output value of the construction industry reached 29.3 trillion yuan, more than twice that of 2012. The number of people employed in the construction industry reached 52,829,400, more than 10 million more than in 2012.

In the past 10 years, the development efficiency of the construction industry has been greatly improved. The level of engineering design, construction, engineering quality and safety, scientific and technological innovation, and labor skills have all improved significantly, and labor productivity has reached 473,000 yuan per person, an increase of nearly 60% over 2012. A number of new products, new formats, and new models have taken shape, such as prefabricated buildings, construction robots, and the construction industry Internet. In 2021, the country's new prefabricated building area reached 740 million square meters, accounting for 24.5 percent of new buildings.

In the past 10 years, the construction industry has successfully completed a series of infrastructure projects related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and has greatly improved the travel, communication, education, medical conditions and living environment of urban and rural residents. For example, by the end of 2021, the national railway operating mileage completed and in operation has reached 151,000 kilometers, an increase of 53,000 kilometers over the end of 2012. Among them, the operating length of high-speed rail reached 40,000 kilometers; The length of highways reached 5.281 million kilometers, an increase of 1.043 million kilometers; There are 248 airports with regular flights, an increase of 68. In the past 10 years, the housing construction capacity of the construction industry has been significantly improved, and the per capita living area has continued to increase. In 2021, the construction area of the construction industry enterprises in the country will be 15.75 billion square meters, an increase of 59.7% over 2012. In the past 10 years, we have made great progress in education, culture, medical care and other social projects, accelerated the popularization of public service facilities, steadily improved the level of equality of basic public services, and enabled urban and rural people to share the fruits of development.

Buildings are greener and Smarter

At the recently held 2022 China International Trade in Services Fair, the audience found in the exhibition that the robot scanned the wall, established a digital model, handheld mobile devices can view three-dimensional images in real time, and the steel bar pipelines inside the wall are presented in front of the eyes like a criss-crossing meridian map. The immersive digital intelligent construction experience has attracted many people to stop and watch.

This is the construction management "X-MEN" robot independently developed by China Construction Bureau. Engineers transmit the three-dimensional building model to the robot system in advance. Through the LiDAR mapping and positioning system, the robot synchronously records the coordinate points of distance and orientation when moving around the building, generates real-time three-dimensional images of the building, assists in checking the construction quality and calibrating the position of electromechanical pipelines. If you need to transform the house structure, you only need to let the robot walk around, you can see the internal structure of the wall like a perspective eye, and perfectly avoid the internal steel bars or water and electricity lines during construction, and truly realize the digital management of the building.

As an advanced intelligent technology, robots are increasingly used in building construction. This is the epitome of the continuous innovation-driven development of China's construction industry. Technological innovation leads industrial transformation and upgrading, and the modernization level of the construction industry chain in China continues to improve. The layout of construction industries such as infrastructure construction, metallurgy, nonferrous metals, coal, petroleum, chemical industry, hydropower, water conservancy and machinery is gradually complete. The construction process gradually expands to upstream exploration and design and downstream engineering supervision; Urban information modeling (CIM), building information modeling (BIM), big data, intelligence, mobile communication, cloud computing, Internet of Things and other information technology integration and application capabilities continue to improve.

A number of major construction technology breakthroughs have been achieved, with the world's top level of engineering projects have been completed, and the construction technology in some fields has reached the world's leading level, such as the high-speed rail project that marks the "speed" of China's engineering, the bridge project represented by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge that marks the "span" of China's engineering, and the Shanghai Tower that represents the "height" of China's engineering. As well as representing the "difficulty" of China's engineering, the independent research and development of the third-generation nuclear power technology "Hualong One" the world's first reactor demonstration project. The construction of high-speed, alpine, plateau and heavy-haul railways, and the construction of huge Bridges and tunnels have reached the world's advanced level. The key technologies for the construction of offshore deep-water ports, the management of giant estuarine waterways, the management of long river channel systems, and large-scale airport projects have reached the world's leading level.

In the past 10 years, China's green buildings have achieved rapid development, and the energy-saving transformation of buildings has been promoted in an orderly manner. Data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development show that by the end of 2020, China's total green building area has exceeded 6.6 billion square meters, and the total energy-saving building area has exceeded 23.8 billion square meters, with energy-saving buildings accounting for more than 63 percent of urban civil building area. More than 1.5 billion square meters of existing residential buildings have been renovated for energy efficiency in cities and towns across the country, contributing to reducing carbon emissions and gradually achieving the goal of "dual carbon".

The brand influence continues to increase

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the brand influence of "Built in China" has continued to increase.

China has comprehensively and systematically put forward the overall requirements and key tasks for the reform and development of the construction industry, deepened the reform of "delegating control services" in the construction industry, accelerated the improvement of the regulatory system and mechanism, focused on optimizing the business environment of the construction industry, and enhanced the core competitiveness and market vitality of construction enterprises. In 2021, the total value of contracts signed by construction enterprises in China reached 65.7 trillion yuan, 2.66 times that of 2012. From 2013 to 2021, the total amount of contracts signed by construction enterprises in the country has increased by an average annual rate of 11.5%, and China is constantly accelerating the transformation from a construction country to a construction power.

Through the reform of "releasing management services", the vitality of market players continued to be released. In recent years, the approval cycle of engineering construction projects has been significantly shortened, and the business environment has been continuously optimized. At present, the approval of the whole process has been reduced by nearly 30%, parallel approval, joint review, joint acceptance, regional assessment, inform commitment system and other reform measures have been effective, the approval time of the whole process has been reduced to within 120 working days, and the approval of engineering construction projects has become the norm "one blueprint", "one window", "one form" and "one set of mechanisms". According to the "Doing Business 2020 Report" released by the World Bank, China's ranking in the index of handling construction permits has risen to 33rd in the world, jumping 88 places from 2019 and 139 places from 2018.

We will strengthen the development momentum of the construction industry through transformation and upgrading. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has vigorously developed new building industrialization represented by prefabricated buildings, and promoted the optimization and upgrading of "Built in China". The construction industry has developed from the traditional workshop era of mixing mortar on site and "covering with dust and ash" to the era of construction industrialization of "building houses like making cars", and is moving into the era of digital construction.

In the past 10 years, the pace of "going out" in the construction industry has also accelerated, and the "Built in China" brand has steadily taken root in the international community. The international competitiveness of China's construction industry has been significantly enhanced, and foreign project contracting has spread to more than 190 countries and regions. Since 2013, the turnover of completed foreign contracted projects and the amount of newly signed contracts have maintained an overall growth trend. In 2021, 79 companies were included in the list of the world's 250 largest international contractors, and the number and business proportion of enterprises have been ranked first in the world since 2014.

Li Rusheng said that China will further deepen the reform of the construction industry, adhere to innovation-driven and technology-led, promote the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry and high-quality development, continue to build the "Built in China" brand, and make greater contributions to the sustainable and healthy development of the economy and society. (Economic Daily reporter Kang Shu)