|
Home>News Center>China | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Shanghai bans new public cars, for one year
Shanghai mayor has announced a one-year purchasing ban of new public cars as one of the measures to ease the ever-increasing traffic burden of the city, a bustling economic and financial center in China.
Mayor Han Zheng said on August 17 that all Party and government departments will not be allowed to purchase new cars for public use in 12 months, and also disclosed that the city government plans to release the license plates for institutional use by way of auction in the future, just like those of private cars.
The decision came in the wake of an ongoing reform, under which the municipal government would impose tight control on the number of public cars, though far more details awaited discussion, said Jiao Yang, spokeswoman of the municipal government.
Statistics shows that the number of cars in Shanghai for institutional use had reached some 500,000 by the end of 2003, 300,000 more than private ones.
The municipal government began to control the number of private cars by rationing car license plates about a decade ago. A car buyer would have to bid for the plate number in the auction rooms before he could buy a car. A license plate could cost as much as more than 100,000 yuan (US$12,000).
Strict control measures have already been in place in the city for purchasing of cars for institutional use, said Jiao.
"Thanks to the implementation of this policy, the number of public cars in Shanghai is increasing at a rather low speed, much lower than that of private cars," Jiao said, adding that it is for the sake of equality that the government plans to auction car quotas for institutional use.
The decision received warm applauses from the experts. They said the purchasing suspension is not only an effective way to make better use of the existing public cars, but also conductive to improve the city's traffic condition.
Several major problems still exist in the system of public cars, which resulted in a heavy financial burden and inefficiency of the government work, the authorities say.
The State has chosen 14 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions), including Jiangsu and Heilongjiang provinces, and four state organs, including the National Audit Office, to implement the pilot reform on public cars.
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
