On the afternoon of May 11, Liu Zhongjie, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Hengyang, presided over a special municipal government meeting to study the revitalization of the existing stock of idle urban land. He stressed the need to tackle the easier issues first while keeping the harder ones in view, to adapt measures to local conditions and to tailor specific policies for each plot. By combining independent development with cooperative development, the city should effectively revitalize the stock of idle urban land and promote high-quality economic growth.

“Don’t let the land lie idle under the sun — we must unlock its comprehensive benefits,” Liu said, getting straight to the point. He noted that the city’s urban areas are still burdened with a considerable amount of existing, inefficient and idle land, and that revitalizing and utilizing these land resources is both imperative and significant. Addressing the “three many, three few” problem in dealing with idle land — “too much land under mortgage but too little revitalization, high assessed values but low actual values, and many objective difficulties but little subjective effort” — Liu stressed that the whole city must further unify its thinking and build consensus, overcome difficulties with firm resolve, and allocate land efficiently as a key factor of production, so as to fully tap its economic potential, break through the land bottleneck and drive high-quality economic development.

Liu pointed out that the focus of revitalization should be on inefficient and idle land that has been supplied but not yet built on, or built on but not meeting the required standards. Efforts must start with the easier cases, be based on facts, and apply a plot-specific approach, giving priority in the allocation of idle land resources to high-quality enterprises that are expanding their production capacity, so that efficient factor support can help enterprises improve quality and efficiency. Independent development and cooperative development must be combined. On the one hand, the city should tap its own potential and speed up independent revitalization by adopting flexible methods — “selling where appropriate, leasing where appropriate.” On the other hand, it should actively bring in strategic investors for cooperative development, so as to comprehensively enhance the land’s overall benefits. An efficient linkage mechanism should be established, with the entire city firmly embracing a “whole chessboard” mindset, and close coordination should be promoted among urban districts, industrial parks and platform companies to ensure that all parties move in step and form a concerted effort to revitalize the land. Liu called for freeing minds and breaking away from path dependency and fixed thinking, urging that any innovative measure capable of improving the overall benefits of land be boldly explored and fully supported. A dedicated task force should be set up quickly; working methods should be reformed and innovated; appraisal and incentive mechanisms should be studied in parallel; and policy support should be rolled out in a timely manner. Leading officials at all levels must carry forward the spirit of overcoming difficulties, dare to tackle the toughest problems, and work in a down-to-earth manner to ensure tangible results in the revitalization drive.

City leaders including Zhong Fan and Wu Xudong, Secretary-General of the Municipal Government, attended the meeting.