China will severely punish corrupt officials who abuse power in approving the use of land for construction and assigning mining rights, pledged Sun Wensheng, minister of land and resources, at a national conference on corruption.

Complaints about corruption in the land and mining sectors have increased in recent years, most of them concerning illegal approval of using farmland for construction and assigning rights to exploit mineral resources at very low prices or free of charge.

Early last year, the government launched a campaign to rectify the country's land market, which has helped to check the rampant abuse of power in the sector and return land to farmers.

"But the achievements of the campaign so far are not fully satisfactory," Sun said. Non-agricultural land use continues to expand and uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources remains strong.

Sun said that his ministry will cooperate with law enforcement agencies to crack down on corruption and set up an open, fair and stable market for land use and assignment of mining rights.

The minister told local governments to make public all plans for approving land use and assignment of mining and exploration rights. These plans are required to include total areas involved and timetables.

"The system of public bidding for land use and mining rights should be improved to make the market more transparent," Sun said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2005)