Taipei, Dec. 14 (CNA) The Legislature amended a law Wednesday to ban the sale of public land plots larger than 1,650 square meters, a move that analysts said will help stop speculating in that market. The amendment to the National Property Act was proposed by Kuomintang Legislator Lai Shyh-bao, who said the current management of public land leaves much to be desired. He noted that the Control Yuan, the nation's highest watchdog body, had repeatedly asked the government improve its poor management of the valuable public resource. Selling state land through open bids brings "more harm than benefit," he said. Under the revised National Property Act, the sale of all vacant and unused public land will be prohibited except in special cases approved by the Executive Yuan, he said. The Executive Yuan in October 2009 introduced regulations that prohibited the sale of public land plots of over 500 pings (1,650 square meters), Finance Minister Lee Sush-der noted. The Ministry of Finance then put forth a strategy for managing national property, which calls for establishing the proper ownership of each plot of public land and encouraging its use in urban rejuvenation projects. The MOF policy also encourages joint development of publicly owned real estate with government agencies or private developers, Lee said. Lee noted that the National Property Bureau under the MOF had stopped putting up public land in Taipei City for tender since March 2, 2010 and had even launched a program to buy back public land that had been sold to private entities. All these policy initiatives were aimed at increasing the efficacy of public land use and preventing private developers from hoarding land and profiting from such actions, the minister said. With the government already taking several initiatives to improve its management of public land, Lai's proposal sailed through the Legislature. The opposition party caucus supported a change in the wording of the bill, from "in principle cannot be sold" to "must not be sold." Lai said the more stringent terms of the amendment were "very good." It means that public land plots over 1,650 square meters cannot be sold now, which will give future generations more room to manage their living spaces, he said. (By Justin Su and S.C. Chang)
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