Beijing needs to build at least one million automobile parking spaces to cope with the city's rapid increase of motor vehicles, a Chinese political advisor has said.

"The construction of parking spaces is lacked far behind the growth of cars, especially private cars," said Liang Yanjun, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

The one million shortage of parking spaces was calculated based on the international standard of one private parking area for each private car and one public parking area for 15 cars, Liang said.

"Many of the cars have to be parked along the streets, causing traffic congestion and putting the owners at the risk of car theft," Liang said in a proposal to the ongoing Fifth Session of the 10th CPPCC National Committee.

The advisor pointed out that Beijing is not alone to suffer from limited parking spaces as car booms are seen in most China's large and medium-sized cities.

"Almost 80 percent of the streets in many large and medium-sized cities face the problem of car parking," said Liang.

The advisor urged the government to build more public parking lots to resolve the parking difficulties. She also suggested authorities adopt favorable policies to attract more private investment into the sector and enable investors to take back input more quickly.

China overtook Japan to become the world's second largest market for new vehicles in 2006 after the United States, registering the sales of 7.22 million vehicles, up 25.13 percent year-on-year. But many buildings, especially old ones, were designed without enough parking places.

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2007)