Lawyer in battle with ministry on gov't stimulus plan

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-12 13:58

Laoye, a netizen from Hubei, put on a post on Jingchu.com affiliated to the Hubei Daily Group, urged legislators to demand the government for a clear breakdown of the expenditure.

Special inspection teams with members from the Ministries of Supervision and Finance and the NDRC have been sent to localities shortly after the package was announced to scrutinize fund use.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Management Commission made an announcement on Sunday, reiterating that it would closely watch over projects implemented by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the country's massive stimulus package to prevent corruption.

However, None of them released reports on their inspection results.

Transparency Needed for Boosting Confidence

Xia Bin, director of Financial Research Institute of Development Research Center of the State Council, suggested to the government that it should establish an evaluation system to gauge the economic effect of the stimulus package on a monthly or quarterly basis.

The government could then adjust its macroeconomic policies according to the latest development and the changing global economic situation, he said.

Xia's opinion was echoed by Chi Fulin, executive director of the China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute, who stressed that supervision and evaluation were of equal importance to the plan implementation.

"Public demand for greater transparency in the government stimulus plan reflects people's worries over China's uncertain economic outlook and the effect of the macroeconomic policies," he said.

However, it might be impractical for the government to release the overall plans of the four trillion yuan investment right away, as it would take two years to have it fully implemented, said he.

What the government could do, Chi said, was to release its fund management details for the current period to boost public confidence in the economy.

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