Beijing seeks stronger oversight and market reforms for natural resources

(ECNS) - China has issued new guidelines to tighten the management of its natural resource assets, aiming to build a more comprehensive regulatory framework by 2030 and a fully established system by 2035.

Jointly released by the General Offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, the guidelines call for clearer ownership rights, better resource inventories, and stronger protection for land, forests, grasslands, water, minerals, and other natural resources.

To that end, authorities will expand the unified registration of natural resources and real estate, upgrade monitoring systems, and build a nationwide resource management map based on common spatial data standards.

The document also sets out market reforms to allocate resources more efficiently, including wider use of competitive bidding for mining rights and trials of paid-use systems for state-owned farmland.

Together, the measures are meant to strengthen how China protects, uses, and oversees its natural resources as it pursues its longer-term environmental and economic goals.

(By Zhang Jiahao)