Guangdong is tightening the screws on land sales with farmers losing their land to massive real-estate developments and white-elephant public projects such as development zones.

A village-level Party secretary will no longer have the power to approve land sales; Party organizations will now only "assist in the management" while the land resources agency of a higher level will have the final say, according to the Guangdong provincial government.

Governor Huang Huahua earlier this week highlighted the "serious situation" facing the province as land becomes more and more scarce.

He advocated a "scientific approach" towards land management that emphasizes "frugality and rationality".

The restructuring will take away much of the power for land sales from lower-level governments and reassign it to the special land resources agency of a higher-level authority.

City-level land agencies will be turned into the fold of the municipal government; and the same for the district level. Town or village levels will have to give the power to the county government.

Non-administration organizations, such as development zones, will have to disband their land management functions. Some exceptions are made for those set up by the State or the province, in which case the land departments will have to go through another process of approval.

For most city or county-level projects, the power will lie at the Party organization of the higher-level land agency, with the lower-level Party committee taking on an assisting role.

The three levels of province, city and county will set up law-enforcement and supervisory agencies for the purpose. They will be put in charge of cases that violate laws and regulations and report to the land agency one level above.

For villages, farmers will convene to decide on a reasonable price for giving up their land, which will take into account rural social security, pension funds and farmers whose livelihoods depend on the land.

In 2003, the Guangdong Land Resources Bureau received 2,512 letters of complaint and 3,324 visitors regarding the infringement of farmers' rights when their land was sold. The crux of the problem lay in the illegal means with which their land was repossessed by local authorities.

Some local governments set their own rates for compensation, which were both unreasonable and illegal. Some deferred compensation payment until the land was sold, effectively turning the farmers landless and jobless.

Guangdong has been promoting policies that "clarify land rights and minimize land use". Earlier this year, it pushed for land reform that used the stock-sharing mechanism and lease for usage. It even considered issuing bonds.

The programme was designed to set aside 10-20 per cent of the proceeds of land sale for the purpose of opening businesses that hire dispossessed farmers.

While real-estate developers claimed to "look forward" to this new system, there was "strong resistance from some local governments", said Zhang Xiaofeng, an official at the provincial land agency.

Li Yanhong, professor of finance at Jinan University, said: "Because some local governments have resorted to loopholes in the sale process, they don't want anything that might expose their wrong doings. They're looking for ways to put off the moment of truth."

Conversion to a lease system means that local governments will have to return some of the lump-sum fees that were charged to developers. Otherwise, developers will cease much of their business as their chain of capital flow may be broken.

Editor: Olivia