Shenzhen has scrapped incentives for land use that had been in
place for years to lure Chinese and foreign investors, and has
announced that only productive, land-efficient projects will be
welcome.
These are part of a string of new regulations published by the
municipal government Thursday, as the city moves to tackle a
shortage of land and resources following two decades of red-hot
economic development.
"It is the first time Shenzhen has launched such kind of
centralized land management system since the special economic zone
was established," said Mayor Xu Zongheng at a conference
Thursday.
The ultimate purpose of these policies is to make sure land is
used efficiently, said Vice Mayor Lu Ruifeng.
According to the new regulations, all land incentives to attract
investment, including lower land prices for certain projects, will
be canceled from July.
The new rules spell out a fine of 20 percent of the land price
if a plot land lies idle for a year after the deadline development.
The government will recall the land if it is not developed for two
years after the deadline.
This will deal a blow to speculators who buy land only to resell
it at prices.
In the next three years, the government will make land for
industrial use available by auction only. At present, only land
lots for housing and commercial purposes are sold by auction, while
industrial land is available by private agreements with the
government.
Before an industrial construction project can qualify to take
part in the auction, however, it must pass an efficiency appraisal.
Low-output projects, which require a large amount of land are
unlikely to be approved.
Apartments buildings, hotels and other constructions for
non-industrial use will not be allowed to be developed on land lots
set aside for industrial purposes.
The government will also reduce land supply in the coming years.
In the next four years, only 83 square kilometers of land in the
city will be available for industrial or commercial development, at
an average of under 21 square kilometers per year. In the last 15
years, about 35 square kilometers of land have been developed
annually on average. That annual average figure was 51 square
kilometers from 2000 to 2004.
Reserved land lots can only be used for short-term purposes such
as parking lots and sports field and are off-limits to permanent
constructions before the government earmarks them for
development.
The new regulations show the city's efforts to increase average
GDP output on limited land resources by carefully monitoring land
developments. The government has said the economic growth will not
be sustainable if the city fails to rein in wasteful use of land
and resources.
"If we don't tighten up land management, more than 90 percent of
the city's land will be used up in four years, and the water and
electric power consumption will be three times than present," Mayor
Xu said at the conference.
"The only solution is carefully planning the use of limited land
resources, and boost the average output," he said.
Statistics shows that, currently, the average land output in
Shenzhen, measured in terms of GDP per square kilometer, is only 18
percent of that in Singapore and 16 percent of that in Hong
Kong.
(Shenzhen Daily June 23, 2006)
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