The pace of special bond issuance in the first quarter has accelerated, supporting project construction and government repayment of debts.

In order to give full play to the role of local government special bonds, in the first quarter of this year, local governments across the country issued a total of over 1.1 trillion yuan in new special bonds, an increase of nearly 200 billion yuan compared to the same period last year, and the issuance pace significantly accelerated. According to statistics from Enterprise Early Warning, the newly issued special bond funds this year will be invested in more than 10,000 projects, continuing to support key areas such as industrial park infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, and actively expanding effective investment. In the first quarter of this year, the proportion of special bond funds allocated to municipal and industrial park infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, and affordable housing projects accounted for over 60% of the total issuance scale. According to Wang Feng, Associate Professor at the China Institute of Public Finance at Shanghai Finance and Economics University, the aforementioned three types of projects have become the priority choices for local government special bond project applications.