Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao has called for further efforts to improve China's housing fund and strengthen the supervision and management of it so that Chinese people can have better housing.
Wen, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the call at a three-day national work conference on public housing which ended in Beijing Saturday.
According to him, the current system of public accumulation fund for housing construction is the key to reforming China's housing mechanism both in rural and urban areas.
Since the system was launched ten years ago, it has added significantly to the growth of China's real estate industry, and has also boosted the development of community services, We said.
Many low-cost residential quarters have been built with the fund to meet the needs of low-income families.
Wen pointed out that there are still problems with the funding system, especially in supervision and management. Improving the administration of the fund is an effective way to guard against
financial risks and would enable most ordinary employees, especially those with low-incomes, to afford to buy their own home.
Administrating the system must have a fund management committee which makes decisions while the fund management center handles the money, which should be banked and put under the supervision of financial authorities, Wen stressed.
The system of public accumulation fund for housing construction was introduced in Shanghai in 1991.
Under the system, each employee contributes a small proportion of his or her monthly wage which is banked together with an equal amount contributed by the employer.
The accumulated fund must be only used to buy or repair individual houses.
By the end of 1998, the system had been adopted in 668 cities across China, with the total amount of money reaching 123 billion yuan (US$14.8 billion).
(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2002)
