A compound catalyst for joint production of methanol and methyl formate is prepared from special copper catalyst which has not been reduced ever by hydrogen, alcoholized alkali-metal, non-ionic surfactant, methanol and nonpolar solvent. The methanol and methyl formate can be obtained by passing synthetic gas through slurry-bed reactor filled with the catalyst in relatively smooth reaction condition. The one-way transform rate of synthetic gas is up to 95%. The time-space output rate when using continuous stirror reactor is up to 88.3g/L/h. The catalyst can suffer from great change of H2/CO ratio in synthetic gas and the water and CO2 in a certain concentration.