Squeezed  [By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn]

China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development recently required all the provinces to build new indemnificatory housing, throwing local authorities a curveball. A recent media report quoted Huang Jinfeng, the deputy director of Guangzhou Municipal Land Resources and Housing Administrative Bureau, as saying that Guangzhou lacks the money for meeting the requirement.

Despite China's double-digit economic growth, budget shortfalls have plagued the provinces these past years. Yet it is still a surprise to hear that Guangzhou has serious financial difficulties.

In 2010, Guangzhou's GDP reached 1.06 trillion yuan and its GDP per capita has exceeded 100,000 yuan. This year, the city has a disposable budget of 103.8 billion yuan. Despite large amounts of money coming in, Guangzhou's fast-paced growth has necessitated enormous spending on public works.

"Tight budgets are cramping our efforts to build indemnificatory housing," said Huang during a policy inquiry held by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Guangzhou on February 20. The embarrassment was palpable when Huang mentioned that Guangzhou was considering raising money through real estate trusts and the auctioning of prime lands.