China curbs illegal land and resources deals

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 07, 2004

China curbs illegal land and resources deals

China will step up its efforts to curb illegal allocation of land resources and illegal mining this year, and cases involving leading officials will be a priority.

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China will step up its efforts to curb illegal allocation of land resources and illegal mining this year, and cases involving leading officials will be a priority.

Sun Wensheng, minister of Land and Resources, told a national meeting on land and resources, that some leading officials and departments have approved land deals against laws and regulations for personal gain in recent years.

China decided last year to rectify the land market, and most localities that illegally delegated the power of approving land deals to subordinate government departments have taken back such rights.

The ministry has made public nine cases of unauthorized use of land for commercial or industrial projects in the past two months.

The minister said China would popularize the use of satellite and remote sensing technology to monitor the country's land resources, and set up a hotline for the general public to report illegal land and resource deals, and will continue to make public major illegal land deals and development projects through the mass media.

China has canceled 2,720 development zones of various kinds to curb illegal land use and protect its cultivated land resources, which has caused a drastic shrinking of farmland in recent years and tens of thousands of farmers lost their farmland for very little compensation to industrial and commercial development projects.

The ministry plans to reclaim 170,000 ha from these so-called development zones, where most of the land has been left unused.

Of the country's 3,837 development zones and industrial parks, only 1,251 were approved by the State Council and provincial governments -- the only two levels of government having the right to endorse such land use, according to statistics released by the ministry.

Meanwhile, the ministry and local departments in charge of the sector will improve the way the land use rights are transferred by increasing transparency and competition.

The proportion of land plots auctioned for land-use rights will be increased to 33 percent, from the current 15 percent, in an effort to curb illegal trading in land-use rights.

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