The Chinese government has decided to put land officials below
the provincial level under the direct management of superior land
departments in a bid to tighten its control over land resources,
according to sources?with the Ministry of Land
and Resources.
This is an important decision of the central government for
improving the land management system, said Sun Wensheng, minister
of land and resources, at the National Conference of Land
Officials?in Beijing?Saturday.
At present, local land officials are managed by local
governments, which has set up barriers to the smooth implementation
of orders from the superior land departments.
The direct management system will ensure the implementation of
orders in local regions, and tighten central government's control
over land resources, said Sun.
In recent years, many local governments have abused land-use
rights on the excuse of economic development, which has seriously
affected the security of agriculture and grain production. In
2003,the central government reinforced its efforts to regulate the
rules governing the land market, and has put a halt to the trend of
abuse of land requisition in economic development zones.
To date, 2,426 out of the 6,015 economic development zones or
industrial parks have been abolished, and 294 have been merged with
others. Meanwhile, about 168,000 land fraud cases have been dealt
with.
Sun said there are still barriers to land protection and proper
land use. It is hard to conduct strict supervision over the
enforcement of land-related laws and regulations, he noted. Land
management is very lax in some areas, and the abuse of land use is
still serious, he warned.
He stressed that land resources departments should take the
implementation of the policy on arable land protection as a major
task, and improve land market management.
Sun urged the departments concerned to improve legislation
concerning fixed assets registration and land use and requisition.
In addition, he asked local land departments to start
investigations into how to amend the present laws on land
management and mineral resources.
(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2003)