The nation's first all-embracing survey on land resources has laid down a solid foundation for future programming and land management projects, officials with the Ministry of Land and Resources said yesterday.

According to the recently released survey, 28 percent of the country's land territory is covered by grassland while forest covers 23.9 percent of the country's land territory.

Approximately 13.7 percent of the country's 9.6 million square kilometers of land is arable, feeding a population of around 1.3 billion.

The survey provides a complete, systematic and accurate database on land resources, said Mao Donglin, an official with the ministry.

Masterminded by the State Council and the Ministry of Land and Resources, the survey was carried out for two decades, involving more than 2 million people and 1.3 billion yuan (US$156 million).

The survey also reveals that state-owned land occupies 52.6 percent of the country's total landmass, while 45.7 percent of land is collectively owned by farmers; the rest is unidentified land.

The land resources data will be widely used in many fields, including government programming, agricultural surveys, engineering construction and administrative management, Mao said.

The state is tightening its management of land use to better protect state property.

Governments at all levels have been asked to strictly monitor land use in their areas, and people have been forbidden to use cultivated land for construction projects without official approval.

In light of this, public auctions are said to be a highly efficient way to maintain the true value of state-owned land.

In 1999, the country publicly auctioned 10 million square meters of land, earning 11.4 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion).

However, the country loses nearly 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) each year in land disposal because some land use deals are made through agreements instead of public auctions, the ministry added.

Some officials reduce or waive land costs when they feel like it, and no effective measures have been adopted to ensure compensation and prevent officials from lowering the actual cost of the land for sale.

(China Daily November 22, 2001)