In a bid to streamline the process to appraise and approve land
for new constructions, the Ministry of Land and Resources announced
yesterday that it was transferring part of its censor powers to
provincial governments, and from now on it would focus on
supervision.
A statement issued by the ministry said that starting from this
year, provincial governments would be responsible for appraising
land to be used for new constructions in their areas.
Instead of having to frequently apply to the State Council for
approval, the provincial governments would now have to only collect
the results and submit it to the ministry for appraisal once a
year.
The ministry will focus on monitoring the overall situation, for
instance, the scale of added land for new constructions and how to
compensate farmers who lose their land.
The new arrangement would save a lot of work for the ministry,
which originally had to shoulder all the checking up
responsibility.
"This is a great reform of land management." a ministry
official, who didn't want to be named, told Xinhua. "It's conducive
to strengthening macro-management of land, reinforcing the
responsibility of provincial governments by reducing the approval
process and enhancing the administrative efficiency," he was quoted
as saying.
The new arrangement has changed their awkward role from just an
"information collector" to an important "threshold", he said.
"It's good for the ministry to switch its function and put more
efforts into land management," he said.
A series of measures were taken last year to cool down the
overheated fixed-assets investment sector and the illegal acquiring
of arable land.
The ministry has introduced a nationwide land regulatory system
by setting up nine regional supervision bureaus across the
country.
(China Daily January 23, 2007)