China economic planner highlights investment to support growth

China's top economic planner on Monday laid out fresh measures aimed to increase investment.

Xu Shaoshi, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) told a press conference that funding for targeted projects would be increased and the commission would encourage more cooperation between government and private capital. More powers will be delegated to lower levels and the funding mechanism will be improved to push more capital into the real economy.

Xu stressed that considerable uncertainty still surrounds the economy. China is battling a property downturn, industrial overcapacity, sluggish demand and weak exports, which dragged growth down to 7 percent for the first half of the year. The government is pinning hopes on infrastructure investment to shore up growth.

In the first 8 months, investment in infrastructure rose 18.4 percent year on year, contributing to 27.7 percent of the overall investment. Endi