The new land policies should try to optimize the distribution of resources and serve the public interest, said a signed article in Oriental Morning Post. An excerpt follows:

Gan Zangchun, the country's deputy land inspector-general, disclosed some information in the State Council's press conference Thursday: illegal approval of land use, which involved government departments, accounted for about 80 percent of the total land area illegally used; and about 80 percent of all cases of illegal land use involved house construction in the countryside.

Many regional governments have explored new land policies in recent years. For example, Chongqing has carried out a new policy allowing farmers to exchange their land use rights for shares. But what these new land reforms will bring about is unpredictable.

Because government departments were involved in 80 percent of the illegal land use area, how to change the situation that regional governments are both players and judges in the land use market becomes a pressing issue. The public is paying much attention to the central government's next move.

How to optimize the distribution of land resources and serve the public interest tests the administrative wisdom and capability of the government. And these are just the goals of the new land use policies.

The individual's desire and will can only be realized through public policies. The actual issues concerning farmers' interests, such as the circulation of rural house-building land, have to be solved through further reform of land. The establishment of the national land inspector system should promote its development.

The system was designed to set up regional inspection organizations and the inspectors would be exchanged regularly, which can avoid assimilation of the inspection organizations with local governments to a certain degree. But how to guarantee the smooth participation of social supervision in implementing the new land policies is a question that needs a prompt answer.

(China Daily 07/14/2007 page4)

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