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Property info system promised by 2017

2014-08-28 08:54 Global Times Web Editor: Si Huan
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Data will be inaccessible to public

An official with the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) said Wednesday that information on property ownership will be shared through a national registration system by the end of 2017.

Despite the public hopes for the system's potential role in containing corruption, analysts have downplayed it as such information cannot be accessed by the general public.

During an online interview with gov.cn, the central government's information portal, Leng Hongzhi, a deputy head of the MLS' property registration bureau, said the country aims to establish a basic platform for the management of real estate registration information in four years.

On August 15, the government publicized an interim regulation on property registration to solicit public opinions.

Currently, property ownership is registered under multiple departments, such as agricultural, forestry and mining authorities, which led to high administrative costs and loopholes.

While the unified national registration system is expected to help curb speculation in the property market, the public have expressed hopes that it could help reveal unlawful gains held by corrupt officials.

For example, Cai Bin, a former official in Guangzhou who became known as "Uncle House," was found to have 22 properties registered under the name of his family members in 2012.

However, the draft regulation stipulates that registration information will not be made public without the consent of property owners, although the government is allowed to access and copy relevant information for investigations.

Han Deyun, head of the Lawyers Association of Chongqing and a deputy to the National People's Congress, told the Procuratorial Daily that the regulation aims to protect the legal rights of property owners, and it is not necessarily linked to the fight against corruption.

Sun Xianzhong, an expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also said during Wednesday's online interview with gov.cn that some people's hope of public access to registration information is not supported by the law.

Since the draft regulation's publication, some Net users have said that the property registration information of public servants should not be kept from the public. However, Ye Qing, a deputy director of the Hubei Provincial Bureau of Statistics, argued that officials' privacy regarding their wealth should also be protected to a certain extent.

Ma Baocheng, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Governance, echoed such sentiments, adding that the registration system itself will serve as a deterrent to corrupt officials.

"Though it is not accessible to the public, the unified system will effectively help disciplinary authorities at various levels to grasp genuine information about officials' wealth. And it is only a technical problem for them to obtain information on properties registered under the officials' spouses," said Ye.

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