OREANDA-NEWS. Anhui's fixed asset investment rose 18 percent year-on-year to 972.09 billion yuan (USD 156.8 billion) in the first half of 2014 (H1), local authorities said.

The growth, higher than the national average of 17.3 percent, enabled the province to rank 16th among 31 Chinese mainland provinces, up from last year's 12th spot.

"Investment is crucial to the province's economic growth. Since 2002, it has risen more than 32 percent year-on-year on average, emerging as the major driving force behind the province's economic development. Anhui's economy has kept a double-digit growth since 2004,” said Ruan Huabiao, an expert with the Anhui Economic Information Center.

From January to June, 1,430 major projects, including a high-speed railway from Huangshan in the south of the province, to Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, kicked off, achieving 72.9 percent of the full-year target, according to an official with the Development and Reform Commission of Anhui.

Investment in the service sector was on the rise. "Capital inflows in wholesale and retail sales, renting services, business services and the banking sector all grew faster than the fixed asset spending as a whole in the first half of this year," Lu Jiajun, an official with the commission said.

Non-governmental investors played an important role in the province's investment growth, as private investment reached 666.9 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year rise of 22.5 percent, or 4.5 percentage points higher than the total investment.

In August, Anhui took a critical step towards the removal of investment barriers by offering 28 infrastructure projects to non-governmental investors.