NPC 'likely' to set new land terms

The National People's Congress (NPC) is likely to extend the terms of land contract management rights beyond 30 years to ensure the rights remain "stable and unchanged for a long period", a senior official said yesterday.

Chen Xiwen, director of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Rural Work, told a press meeting that "stable and unchanged" rights means a tenure of longer than the current 30 years.

In order to revitalize the country's vast rural areas, the Party agreed last week to boost rural development by granting farmers "stable and unchanged" land rights and encouraging land contract management rights to be transferred more freely.