September 29, 2025

China has built the world's largest, most comprehensive water infrastructure system, benefiting the largest number of people. The total investment in water conservancy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) is projected to exceed 5.4 trillion yuan ($756.96 billion), head of China's Ministry of Water Resource (MWR) Li Guoying said on Monday.

In 2022, China's investment in water conservancy construction surpassed 1 trillion yuan for the first time and set new records for the following three years, reaching 1.3529 trillion yuan in 2024. Total investment during the 14th Five-Year Plan period is expected to be 1.6 times that of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), said Li.

Investment in water conservancy projects is large in scale and long in duration, but it can effectively drive social investment and provide support for sustaining high-quality economic development, Li Changan, a professor with the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Monday.

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https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202509/1344746.shtml