The huge debts of Chinese local governments, brought by the large investments of the Chinese government, have drawn concerns, local media reported.

The Chinese government has begun to take measures to control the high debts. Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), said recently, that a survey for the debts of the local governments has been initiated.

He stressed that the management of banks need to be strengthened. The local governments' financing platforms and property market need more close attention.

According to Liu, by the end of 2009, the balance of loans given out by the local financing platforms reached 7.38 trillion yuan ($1.08 trillion), up 70.4 percent year-on-year. In 2009, these financing platforms loaned out 3.05 trillion yuan ($0.45 trillion), making up 34.5 percent of the total loans in the country.

While some sources say the debts have exceeded 8 trillion yuan ($1.17 trillion), some others even say they have exceeded 10 trillion yuan ($1.46 trillion).

"The accurate number of the debts is actually a question hard to answer," Zeng Kanghua, director of the School of Public Finance of the Central University of Finance and Economics, said.

Also, according to media reports, the debt ratio of some local governments reached as high as 94 percent, and in some cities it even surpassed 400 percent.

The rising of debts of the local governments is mainly driven by the 4 trillion yuan ($585.6 billion) stimulus package launched by the central government, Gao Peiyong, director of the Institute of the Finance and Trade Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Currently, certain local governments do not include the debts into their budgets, and therefore the transparency and normalization are in lacking, and may cause risks," Liu Junmin, official from the Ministry of Finance said.

"If the risks break out in the future, many underway projects will be interrupted as well as economic development in these areas," Yin zhongqing, member of the National People's Congress (NPC), said.

Still, there are analysts who believe that the risks are not too high and debts are still under control.

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