China is stepping up efforts to stabilize investment as its economy moves through a critical stage of structural transformation. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with other government departments, recently held a national investment work conference, outlining seven key tasks meant to strengthen investment and support high-quality development.

The policy move sends an important and clear signal. Stabilizing investment is no longer simply about maintaining the overall scale of investment. Instead, China is placing greater emphasis on the quality, efficiency and structure of investment, seeking to channel resources toward areas that can generate stronger and more sustainable growth.

The pressure facing investment should not be underestimated. In the first eight months, China's fixed-asset investment fell 7.2 percent year-on-year, while private investment declined 10.1 percent. The figures reflect the continuing adjustment of the real estate market as well as the difficulties involved in replacing traditional growth drivers with new ones.

But looking only at the headline figures would miss an important structural change.

Investment in high-tech manufacturing continues to show strong momentum. Investment in integrated circuit manufacturing, for example, increased 11.5 percent year-on-year. In Zhejiang province, manufacturing investment rose 11.1 percent in the first half and accounted for 29.1 percent of total investment, an increase of 4.6 percentage points from a year earlier.

Such changes suggest that China's investment structure is gradually moving away from its previous heavy reliance on real estate and toward manufacturing, technological innovation and industrial upgrading. This shift may bring short-term adjustment pressure, but it is also laying the foundation for a more sustainable, more diversified investment model.

The latest policy arrangements are significant because they seek to identify new investment opportunities while addressing existing constraints. The government has highlighted areas including technological innovation, industrial upgrading and urban renewal, indicating that future investment will increasingly be linked to the transformation of China's economic structure.

Financing will remain critical to this process. The latest measures establish a multilayered financing framework, combining government investment, policy-based finance and market-oriented financing. Local government special-purpose bonds will be used more efficiently, while new policy-based financial instruments will provide additional support for major projects. Private enterprises will also be encouraged to participate in infrastructure real estate investment trusts and projects under the new public-private partnership mechanism.

The scale of support is considerable. New policy-based financial instruments are expected to reach 800 billion yuan ($119.39 billion) in 2026, 300 billion yuan more than the previous year, mainly to supplement capital for major projects. The central government has also arranged 100 billion yuan for six fiscal and financial policy tools aimed at stimulating domestic demand. From January to July, relevant policies had supported about 1.51 trillion yuan in private investment.

More importantly, diversified financing can make investment support more targeted. Different sources of capital have different risk preferences and financing capacities. Bringing them together can reduce reliance on a single channel while allowing capital to reach a broader range of projects.

Yet money alone cannot determine the success of investment. As China's economy becomes more technology-intensive and innovation-driven, the factors supporting investment are also changing.

The latest policy arrangements call for more precise support in areas such as land use and environmental assessment, while placing greater emphasis on data, technology, talent and application scenarios. This reflects a broader shift from relying primarily on traditional "hard" factors to combining physical infrastructure with institutional and technological support.

The development of computing-power networks, new power grids and next-generation communication networks provides a useful example. Building physical infrastructure represents hard investment, but without compatible data standards, technological coordination and effective institutional arrangements, large-scale investment may not generate its full potential.

China's proposed "2+3+N" coordination mechanism, involving two power-grid companies, three telecom operators and computing power enterprises, illustrates the importance of such coordination. In this sense, improving the institutional operating environment can be just as important as increasing investment itself.

This is also why encouraging private investment has become a particularly important part of the current policy approach.

Private enterprises need not only access to projects, but also access to financing and confidence that their legitimate rights and interests will be protected. The latest measures seek to address these three areas by expanding opportunities for private participation, improving financing channels and establishing mechanisms to coordinate responses and resolve problems.

The Private Economy Promotion Law, which was enacted in May of last year, provides an important institutional foundation for these efforts. The challenge now is to turn legal protections into an effective and predictable environment in which private enterprises are more willing and able to invest.

A more dynamic project pipeline is equally important. The latest meeting called for projects to be managed through four stages — implementation, preliminary preparation, reserves and planning. Such an approach can help ensure that investment does not depend solely on projects already under construction, but develops through a continuous cycle.

This matters particularly when investment growth is under pressure. If projects currently under construction are not supplemented by sufficient projects in preparation and reserve, investment momentum can weaken when existing projects reach completion. A continuous project pipeline can therefore help make investment growth more stable and sustainable.

Taken together, these measures represent more than a short-term effort to boost investment. They reflect a broader shift in China's investment strategy; from pursuing investment volume to improving investment quality; from relying mainly on physical inputs to strengthening institutional support; and from government-led investment toward greater participation by market forces.

As China's economy moves from high-speed growth toward high-quality development, the role of investment is changing as well. Effective investment should not simply provide support for current economic growth. It should also help reshape the structure of future growth.

By directing more resources toward technological innovation, advanced manufacturing, urban renewal and other emerging areas, while improving financing mechanisms, factor allocation and institutional coordination, China can unlock greater potential from investment.

The latest policy measures therefore send a clear message: despite short-term pressures, China continues to have substantial room for effective investment. The quality of that investment — rather than its sheer volume — will increasingly determine how strongly it contributes to China's next stage of development.

The writer is a researcher at the National Academy of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.