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The licences of 13 problem-ridden relocation companies that have aroused public anger were revoked by the Beijing municipal government to straighten out the city's relocation market.
It is a move as part of the Sunshine Project, which requires transparency in the city's capital construction process, including the approval, planning, bidding, and relocation.
Beijing's Sunshine Project is a long-overdue bid to make the capital's construction projects more open and law abiding.
Relocation of households has increased greatly as Beijing's urban construction sped up in past few years. At the same time, it has become a sensitive issue as conflicts keep arising. Some households do not want to be moved or are not satisfied with payments on offer, while some relocation companies use improper means to force the residents to move.
Indeed, corruption is always behind such conflicts: Some real estate developers have forged contracts with authorities seeking remuneration for their part in the removal of old houses.
It is impossible to expect that all people will be happy about moving out of their old homes. But relocation work in Beijing is likely to attract fewer complaints as these improper practices are rectified and the whole process is opened to the public.
And the Sunshine Project is especially important for Beijing, the host of the 2008 Olympic Games.
The next five years will be the key period for the construction of venues and transport facilities that is expected to cost billions of yuan. Capital construction projects easily fall as the hotbeds of corruption. Almost all notorious corruption cases in China in recent years, such as the Cheng Weigao case in Hebei Province and Liu Fangren case in Guizhou Province, are connected to the abuse of power and bribery concerning capital construction projects.
A supervisory committee has been set up in the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee to safeguard a process of open bidding and market-based development. And the clear stance of the municipal government to safeguard transparency will surely add to our confidence in Beijing to host a "clean" Olympics.
What's more, transparency is needed in every and all fields of our life to curb all kinds of under-the-table practices and corruptions.
(China Daily HK Edition November 20, 2003)
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