Reliance on land sales 'must be reformed'

Local governments too dependent on this revenue, says top economist

The new leadership is facing an increasing clamor for reforms and one of its priorities should be to reduce the reliance of local governments on land sale revenues, said a leading economist.

Resolving this issue is important for further urbanization, a major objective, said Hua Sheng, who was on a key research body under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the early years of reform in the 1980s.