May 4, the deputy director of National Development and Reform Commission, Mu Hong accepted the interview by the economic channel of CCTV. He made an analysis and explanation on the effects of the central government’s policies and measures related to expand the scale of investment and to stimulate economic growth.

Mu Hong pointed out that, in order to cope with the international financial crisis and its impact on China's economy, the central government made decisive decisions to implement a proactive fiscal policy and moderately loose monetary policy. At the same time, it also rapidly launched a package of plans to expand domestic demand and promote the economy developed soundly. Arrangements by increasing the central government invested 1.18 trillion yuan, driving four trillion yuan investment is an important part of the package plans.

From the situation of the first quarter, the pulling effects of the investment expansion policies have begun to appear. Mainly reflected in the following areas:

First, stimulated by central investment, the growth of the whole society’s fixed assets investment accelerated. In the first quarter, the total fixed asset investment grew by 28.8%, with a respectively increase by 4.2 and 6.4 percentage points compared to the same time last year and the fourth quarter. Besides, the total planned investment of new projects up by 87.7%, with an increase of 92.1 percentage points compared with last year.

Second, the central government’s investment stimulated a noticeable increase in investment in priority areas. In the first quarter, the growth of investment in agriculture, water conservancy, transportation, education, health, environmental protection respectively reached a level of 30% -90%. The growth of investment in the central, western and northeast old industrial bases respectively increased by 33.7%, 46.1% and 58.9%, higher than the national average level of investment growth.

Third, positive changes appeared in the economy field, and the prices of industrial production and some investment goods stabilized gradually. The production situation of some high investment-related industries such as construction machinery, building materials, mechanical and electrical equipment began to improve. In March, the above-scale industrial added value growth rate accelerated by 4.5 percentage points over the previous two months. In April, the manufacturing PMI was 53.5%, as an important leading indicator to observe the economic trends, it has picked up for consecutive 5 months.

Mu Hong stressed, the above information showed that the expansion of investment policy issued by central authorities was timely and effective. The tracking test results of the Central Inspection Unit and the Audit Commission also showed that the overall implementation of central government’s investment projects was good. It can be expected that, with a gradual entrance to the construction season in the second quarter, the leading role played by the central investment will be further demonstrated.