Individuals and institutions from home and abroad should soon be able to gain easier access to more than 500 uninhabited islands in the city of Ningbo in east China's Zhejiang Province.

But any foreign investment would have to be approved by the State Council, a source told China Daily Sunday.

Zhou Keqin, vice-director of the Ningbo Municipal Ocean and Fishery Bureau, said a new regulation has been devised that further defines and standardizes the approval procedures of applying for managerial control over the islands. The draft is now out for public comment.

Under the regulation, an individual or group will be allowed to maintain control over an island for 50 years at most. They can also apply for the naming rights.

Those applying for the use of the islands are required to produce a written application, an identity or corporation certificate, an overall layout blueprint, an environmental protection plan, an environmental impact study and a report showing their ability to develop and manage the location.

According to Zhou, investors are welcome to construct ecological resorts, ports and warehouses and to extract resources.

The government will hold public biddings and auctions if an island is to be used for commercial purposes. There will be no such procedures if an island is to be used as a private residence.

"Being the user of the island does not mean that you can own the whole island," said Zhou.

"Some areas of these islands, especially the woods, belong to the villagers living nearby. They are not supposed to be developed for any other use."

People who destroy the environment on the islands or use them for illegal purposes will be fined anything from 30,000 yuan (US$3,600) to 300,000 yuan (US$36,000), the regulation states.

Statistics from Ningbo's ocean and fishery bureau show that there are about 560 uninhabited islands, which are all larger than 500 square metres, off the city's southeastern coast. Dozens of them have already been developed following national guidelines.

The new regulation focuses on reducing the number of intermediate links in the application process. Application examinations and approvals will be undertaken by the county government under Ningbo.

But where larger islands or islands with nature preservation zones are concerned, applications must be approved by the municipal government, Zhu said.

Currently, applications are looked at mainly based on the country's Protection and Utilization Regulations for Uninhabited Islands, which became effective at the start of July last year.

The city's regulation will be handed to the Ningbo Municipal People's Congress in May and then to the Zhejiang Provincial People's Congress for approval.

(China Daily March 1, 2004)