In the 60 years since the founding of New China, land administration and utilization standards have continued to rise. China has promulgated 13 laws and regulations on land administration, which has taken a legal track.

"The administration of land and resources is an overall, fundamental and strategic issue, because land and mineral resources are non-renewable. We must safeguard China's development while protecting domestic resources. We are therefore shouldering double pressure and facing a dilemma. However although the burden is heavy, we have confidence that we can successfully perform our duties in investigating, evaluating, planning, administrating and reasonably using land and resources with joint efforts and under the leadership of the State Council."

Land resources provide strong support for China's modernization drive and food security

In the 60 years since the founding of the New China, land resources have provided guaranteed land and financial support for China's modernization drive. In the latest ten years in particular, land resources provided 67.918 million mu of land for China's industrialization, urbanization and New Rural Construction. Meanwhile, China has guaranteed food security through the implementation of a strict farmland protection system and vigorously carrying out land treatment.

Xu Shaoshi said that over the past 60 years, China's land administration and utilization standards have continued to rise. China has promulgated 13 laws and regulations on land administration, which has taken a legal track. China has also issued and implemented three overall planning outlines on land utilization, strengthened the country's macroeconomic control of land utilization, and laid a foundation for harmonizing land utilization among industries.

In recent years, the Ministry of Land and Resources has focused on overall economic and social development by always actively providing services, strictly carrying out administration, and striving to construct, maintain and promote the new scientific system while learning and practicing the scientific development outlook on development, carrying out earthquake relief work and dealing with the financial crisis. The Ministry has further improved both the management and service standard of land resources, and made new contributions to maintaining steady and rapid economic growth.

Xu said that in modern management, land is a type of resource, a type of asset and a type of capital, and only the triune management method can adapt to the socialist market economy system.

From knowing a little about our own mineral resources to becoming a global power in mineral resources

Xu said that over the past 60 years, China has made many key breakthroughs in mineral exploration, the legal system of mineral resources has gradually improved, the construction and protection of geological environment has been strengthened and geological science and technology has also achieved significant progress and innovation. All of this provides guarantee and support for China's economic and social development.

In 1949, China only had two types of minerals whose reserves had been proven, and just 300 mines. There was a severe shortage of mineral resources, and mineral production was particularly inadequate. The annual output of crude oil was only 120,000 tons. Currently, China has discovered 171 types of minerals, 159 of which have proven reserves. China has over 20,000 mines, and reserves of the minerals such as lead, zinc, tungsten, tin, stibium, rare earth, magnesite, magnesite, gypsum, graphite and barite all rank first in the world. The total proven reserves of China's minerals rank among the world's leading countries and the total output of China's minerals ranks among the world's top three, making China a global power in mineral resources.

The great progress of China's geologic and mining work has allowed China's mining industry to become prosperous and also significantly contributed to China's great economic development over the past 60 years.

At present, mineral resources are the source of over 90 percent of China's primary energy, over 80 percent of its industrial raw materials, over 70 percent of its agricultural production materials and over 30 percent of its industrial and household water consumption. China has set up over 10,000 large and medium-sized mining enterprises and over 110,000 small mining enterprises, employing more than eight million personnel.

China has made great achievements in the development of ocean resources

China's territory includes three million square kilometers of waters and its coastline stretches over 18,000 kilometers.

Xu said that as a maritime power, China has rich ocean resources. Since the founding of New China, great achievements have been made in the development of ocean resources, providing an important material foundation for China's economic and social development. Given the increasing shortage of land-based resources such as water, land and minerals, people have higher expectations of the "blue territory."

The internationally-accepted term for waters is "marine land". Over the past few decades, the concept of state-owned waters and their compensated utilization has taken root, and sea farming has changed from "disordered, excessive and free" to "ordered, moderate and compensated". In 2007, Property Law provisions outlined the national ownership and usage rights of waters, marking the first classification of waters as important state property along with minerals and rivers, and establishing the right to use waters as a basic usufructuary right.

As of the end of 2008, China had issued a total of 46,612 certificates granting the right to use waters, confirmed the usage rights of 1.47 million hectares of waters and collected a total of 12.4 billion yuan compensation for this usage. The amount of compensation collected increased from 120 million yuan in 2002 to 5.89 billion yuan in 2008, showing a sustainable development path in the use of this carrier of ocean resources.

Properly manage and use territorial resources and strive to enhance capacity to safeguard domestic resources

Xu said that in terms of the overall work arrangement for land and minerals, simply put, the first task is to successfully implement a top-level design by researching national strategies for sustainable land resource development, and studying how to safeguard China's sustainable economic and social development. This research will determine the orientation, direction, and guidelines of land and resources management work.

The second task is laying a solid foundation and outlining China's land resources. There are two key aspects to laying the foundation - revising land management and mineral resources laws, and implementing overall plans for land utilization, mineral resources, mineral exploration and the prevention and control of natural disasters.

The third task, which is in the middle level, is to emancipate thinking, reform and innovation to establish a new mechanism safeguarding and advancing scientific development.

Xu said in conclusion that safeguarding development and protecting resources is a dialectical unity. It is only possible to safeguard development and protect resources if ideas about land management and utilization, and development modes are changed. The courage to change and innovative ideas are required to explore new ways of enabling limited land resources to bear the great rejuvenation and prosperity of the Chinese nation.