Potential risks

There are concerns among deputies and advisors that China should repeat the old practice of blind investment and putting growth ahead of environment in its efforts to meet the target growth this year.

Jia Kang said the government should implement strict planning of investment to make sure that government investment are spent on more projects aimed at economic restructuring.

Zhang Liqun, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, said an economic slowdown could be used as a perfect opportunity to promote economic restructuring and transform the mode of development.

As a result of the country's massive plan to shore up the economy, the Premier also proposed a fiscal deficit of 950 billion yuan (139 billion U.S. dollars) for 2009, a record high in six decades.

Although the record deficit is still within the "safe range", accounting for less than 3 percent of China's GDP, economists said concerns remained.

The country may have to spend even more if China's economic growth further weakens in the second quarter of this year.

The big challenge for China is how to sustain a continuous deficit expansion in the coming two to three years, said Gao Peiyong, deputy head of the Institute of Finance and Trade Economics with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2009)