China's State Council issued a decree Friday stating its determination to deepen land management reform by adopting the most strict land management rules to stop rampant misuse of land throughout the country. 

Xinhua was authorized to publish the document entitled "The Decision on Deepening Reforms and Strengthening Land Management by the State Council."

"Adopting a strict land management system is called for by the situation of our country, featuring a large population and lack of land cultivable. It is also an inevitable demand of implementing a scientific concept of development to ensure a sustainable economic and social development," the document says.

According to the decree, since last year, all localities have been carrying out central government policies to check all kinds of development zones and temporarily stop approvals on any projects to use farmland for other purposes, which has resulted in a positive progress in the land management control campaign and helped the implementation of macro-economic control.

These results, however, are merely initial as various problems, such as blind investment, low-level and overlapped construction projects, and misuse of cultivable land, still exist.

The document calls for deepening reforms, improving the legal system, making coordinate arrangements and dealing with both external and internal issues.

The State Council has ordered localities to strictly implement land management laws and regulations, step up the implementation and management of general plans for local land use, urbanization plans for cities, and plans for villages and small towns.

(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2004)