Land valuers decide the value of a specific piece of land and play essential roles in such economic activities as land transactions involved in construction projects and the public listing of companies.

The Ministry of Land and Resources will stop the direct management of land valuers soon, said Wu Haiyang, director of the ministry's Land Valuation and Land Value Management Division, yesterday.

Specifically, the ministry will no longer organize the national qualification examinations for land valuers, nor will it approve the establishment of new land valuation organizations.

These duties will be transferred to the China Association of Land Valuers.

Under the reform, certificated land valuers as well as land-valuing organizations will have easier access to land valuing.

However, Qin Hairong, secretary-general of the association, said he was considerably worried about this "much easier entry."

Many overseas land valuation agencies that usually have more capital advantages as well as more experience, are trying to enter the Chinese market and their entry is expected to bring big challenges to their Chinese counterparts.

But Wu was confident about the future of domestic land valuation organizations.

"A real fight is the only way to produce real players of market," said Wu.

"You need pressure to fully show one's potential."

(China Daily August 22, 2002)