Around 90 major projects will be stopped and 151 others be suspended in northwest China's Shaanxi Province in efforts to curb runaway construction, triggering concerns over jobs and growth.

The decision was made after the inspection of more than 4,000 projects, valued at 320 billion yuan (US$38.7 billion), which may make the province the one taking the harshest measures to curb investment.

The local government has stopped a number of fixed asset projects in order to implement the central government's macroeconomic control measures, which are designed to prevent the economy from overheating.

"From early this year till the end of June, we had made an overall inspection of the province's investment projects on fixed assets, including both those that were under construction and those to be built, and stopped 86 projects with a total investment of 3 billion yuan (US$361 million)," said Zhang Xiaosong, an official of the Shaanxi Provincial Development and Reform Commission.

Projects

Twenty-four projects, with 410 million yuan (US$49.4 million) of investment, were already ordered to stop and 62 others, with 2.58 billion yuan (US$310.8 million), were cancelled.

"Some of these stopped or cancelled projects are not in keeping with the State industrial policies and regulations concerned, some do not have proper approval for land use, and some do not conform with the requirements of environmental protection or urban planning," Zhang said.

Out of the 86 stopped and cancelled projects, 37 were the office buildings constructed or due to be built, the construction of which is strictly limited by the central government, the official said.

And others are shopping malls, and small iron and cement factories, the official said.

The official added that 151 projects were stopped temporarily to allow them to obtain necessary administrative approval.

At the same time, Shaanxi also closed a number of factories that did harm to the environment.

(China Daily August 9, 2004)