China’s government is preparing to order some central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to quit the real estate development business as their land acquisitions are blamed for fueling the rise of urban housing prices, spokesman of the state assets watchdog Du Yuanquan said last week.
The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) would require 78 centrally-administered SOEs, whose major business was not property development, to withdraw from the business, Du said in a SASAC press conference Thursday in Beijing.

The SASAC gave no specific timetable for the withdrawal, but Du said it would require the 78 enterprises to step up business restructuring and gradually pull out of property development after all current real estate projects were finished.

Housing prices in China’s 70 large and medium-sized cities grew 10.7% in February from a year earlier, and were up 0.9% compared to the previous month, according to official figures.

However, a total of 16 central SOEs, who have property development as major business, such as the China National Real Estate Development Group Corp. and the China Poly Group Corp., will be allowed to continue in real estate.—Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnews.com

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Mar 21st, 2010and filed underBRIC, Latest News.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site