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)