A satisfactory explanation of the shifts in the pattern of investment financing is not feasible in the absence of adequate information on the changing methods of financing economic enterprises and organizations. The announced government policy is to shift financing progressively from the budget to the economic trusts. The shifts did not alter the fundamental fact that all investment funds, excluding the small private investment, remained public property subject to governmental controls and that the difference was merely one of bookkeeping. The change in the channeling of public investment funds was introduced in the hope of increasing the effectiveness of their use. The realization of major investment projects, particularly in industry, has been made possible by very substantial technical and material assistance from the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, serious shortcomings have been officially reported in the implementation of investment programs, both in industrial and in residential construction. The main problem has been posed by the initiation of building programs that exceed the capacity of the construction industry and the consequent scattering of limited resources. The situation has been aggravated by frequently poor project planning, inferior design, delays in the delivery of machinery and materials, poor organization of work, and slack discipline. As a result of the difficulties in construction, the completion and commissioning of new industrial plants has often been delayed, and housing construction has fallen chronically short of the volume planned--by as much as 25 percent in 1972. The consequent failure of the anticipated output from new plants to materialize created shortages in various areas, thereby affecting production and market supplies adversely and necessitating revisions of the economic plans. In an effort to minimize these difficulties, the government adopted various administrative measures in 1971 and 1972, including the formulation of a list of nationally important construction projects, direct supervision of which was assumed by the Council of Ministers. The number of projects included in the list for 1972 was variously reported as thirty-five and thirty-nine out of a total of more than 3,000 projects. The listed projects consisted mainly of plants for the production of industrial materials. BUDGET