China promises 4 million units of affordable housing in 2011

China's central government has ordered local governments to start building 10 million affordable houses before October and to complete 4 million of the total by the end of the year, according to information from a recent meeting on promoting affordable housing nationwide.

It was noted at the meeting that the central government's funds for the construction of affordable housing must not be appropriated, and local governments must increase their capital-raising efforts to ensure there is enough funding. Furthermore, they should take effective measures to accelerate the construction of certain projects, to complete their tasks on schedule, to combat corruption while ensuring the quality and safety of affordable housing.

According to sources, the current lack of supporting funds is still the main difficulty during the construction of affordable housing projects in various places, especially in some places with weak financial resources.

As the quota of affordable housing projects has increased year by year, a considerable portion of lands for the construction of affordable houses come from land expropriation in various places. In particular, land expropriation has become more difficult after the implementation of the "Regulation on the Expropriation of and Compensation for Houses on State-owned Land" at the beginning of 2011, which affected the construction of affordable housing projects and the progress of urban shantytown reconstruction to a certain degree. In addition, housing construction costs have also significantly increased.

Qi Ji, deputy minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, proposed six requirements regarding how to promote and ensure the fully operation of affordable housing projects in 2011, including making sure to complete the construction mission in 2011; collecting funds through multiple channels and timely issuance of funds; accelerating the implementation of projects in accordance with plans; ensuring th! e constr uction quality of projects; conscientiously strengthening the management of affordable houses, and sincerely formulating the 12th Five-Year Plan for affordable housing.

By People's Daily Online

Weekly review

Editor


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alibaba's Jack Ma expresses Yahoo interest

Image
Jack Ma, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, said he is very interested in buying all ofYahoo Inc. [File photo] Jack Ma, chairman and CEO of China's Alibaba Group, has said he is "very interested" in buying all of struggling Yahoo Inc. Alibaba spokesperson John Spelich confirmed that Ma made the remarks during his keynote speech at Stanford University in response to a question from a member of the audience. "Alibaba is very important to Yahoo, so is Yahoo to Alibaba," said Ma during a Q&A session. When he was asked which part of Yahoo he was interesting in, Ma responded, "the whole piece of Yahoo", Reuters reported. After Yahoo fired its CEO Carol Bartz, several U.S. media outlets singled out Ma as the outstanding candidate to succeed Bartz. Yahoo has reportedly also received inquiries from Microsoft, News Corporation and private equity firm Silver Lake Europe LLP. Alibaba faces a number of obstacles if it proceeds with its planned purchase of Yaho...
Keep reading

Shanghai port consolidates its position as world's busiest

Image
Shanghai, the world's busiest container port, will consolidate its title this year and leverage its record throughput to become a multi-faceted provider of port services. Containers lie at the Waigaoqiao port in Shanghai yesterday when the city witnessed 30 million TEUs cross its ports. [Shanghai Daily] The city, which overtook Singapore as the world's biggest container handler last year, saw its annual container traffic volume surpass 30 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) yesterday. The figure hits an unprecedented level in the world's port history and marks a new leg in Shanghai's voyage to become a global shipping center by 2020. China's remarkable trade boom is reflected in the Shanghai port numbers, which went from 7,951 TEUs in 1978 to 29.05 million TEUs in 2010. The city's customs oversaw a total of US$790 billion worth of imports and exports in the first three quarters of this year - a 19.3 percent year-on-year increase. And its port handled 23.9 mil...
Keep reading

Trade surplus falls as export reliance fades

CHINA'S traffic surplus fell by 6.4 percent in 2010 from a year earlier after supervision efforts to enlarge imports as well as revoke faith upon exports. The General Administration of Customs pronounced a surplus had been cut to US$183.1 billion. The proportion of surplus to total traffic worth declined to 6.2 percent in 2010 from 2009's 8.9 percent as well as 2008's 11.6 percent. Trade worth finished during US$2.97 trillion in 2010, a surge of 34.7 percent from a year earlier. Exports increasing 31.3 percent to US$1.58 trillion, whilst imports jumped to US$1.39 trillion, up 38.7 percent year-on-year. "While a lot of uncertainties still exist in a external world, China is correct to accelerate a gait of a economic restructuring as well as rely less upon exports," pronounced Xue Jun, an researcher during CITIC Securities Co. Both exports as well as imports shot to a jot down high final month. Exports in Dec increasing 17.9 percent upon an annual basis to US$154.1 ...
Keep reading