By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-31 09:25

Demand for land might increase following the ongoing local government reshuffles, putting more pressure on depleted resources, Land and Resources Minister Xu Shaoshi said yesterday.

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Once the leadership reshuffles are completed, governments "might bring forth new ideas and plans for development, which will inevitably lead to a new round of high demand on resources," Xu said at the ministry's annual conference.

Illegal land acquisitions previously uncovered by the ministry mainly involved unauthorized expansions and the use of farmland for non-agricultural purposes.

Such practices have become rampant with the country's smoldering industrial and housing sector, and the strict arable land protection policy, he said.

In a bid to ensure legal land acquisitions, Xu said an intradepartmental network mechanism will be set up between judicial and administrative government agencies to curb and punish violators, with participation from local governments, courts, procurators, public securities and supervision organs.

The ministry is currently working with the Ministry of Supervision to tackle corruption and rule violations in land-leasing cases, officials said.

A 100-day campaign, which ended last month, was the major undertaking of the two ministries to curb local governments illegally transferring household land to developers.

More than 2,700 officials, alleged to have been involved in 31,000 land use violation cases, will face prosecution following investigations.

Earlier, Ministry of Land and Resources Vice-Minister Gan Zangchun said the ministry will cooperate with industrial and taxation authorities to make it impossible for violators to register the transactions or secure bank loans.

As well as curbing illegal land use, over the past five years, the ministry has reclaimed 1.53 million hectares of arable land by re-cultivating deserted land, Gan said.

The government has set a minimum requirement for arable land of 120 million hectares. The current bank amounts to 121.8 million hectares, so it will be a "very demanding task to achieve the goal", he said.

However, experts have warned that without a change to the economy-oriented development model, land protection will remain tough.

"Land is a very convenient resource for local governments to use in managing and facilitating development," Kong Xiangbin, an associate professor at China Agriculture University, said.