State Council issued a circular on land conservation and
improving the efficiency of land use Monday, in a bid to better
protect arable land.
"With the quick pace of industrialization and urbanization,
China is facing a sharp conflict between land supply and demand, so
it is crucial to improve land use efficiency and protect arable
land," the circular said.
Official statistics revealed that the country's area of arable
land, which had shrunk by 4.6 million mu (306,700 hectares) in 2006
to 1.827 billion mu, was only slightly above the minimum of the
1.8-billion mu warning line set by the government.
The circular called on relevant government agencies to map out
large-scale "scientific infrastructure" programs, tighten land use
approval in both rural and urban areas and step up land market
monitoring.
If land approved for development remains unused for more than
two years, it should be recovered by the government according to
laws and regulations. If the land remain idle for more than one
year and less than two years, land developers should pay a 20
percent non-usage fee, the circular said.
"More than 70 percent of the land used for construction of urban
housing should be designated for residential purposes for low-rent
units, cheaper commercial homes and smaller units of less than 90
square meters," said the circular, a move to provide adequate
housing for low-income families, against the backdrop of surging
housing prices.
In a similar development, the country released the low-rent
housing guarantee policy last November, which took effect on
December 1, 2007, to help the country's ten million low-income
urban families, whose living space was less than ten square meters
per person, accounting for 5.5 percent of the country's combined
households.
China also began to quintuple tax on the use of arable land for
non-farming purposes and charge foreign invested companies as much
as their domestic peers from December 1, 2007.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2008)