Give empty buildings a new life

A NUMBER OF GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS in some provinces remain unused years after completion. Cnhubei.com commented on Saturday:

In fact, the widespread existence of unused government buildings has a lot to do with the regulations issued by the central government three years ago, which urged governments at all levels to stop building oversized offices and forgo the ownership of those already built. More than 4,500,000 square meters of these improperly used buildings have been made available for public use in Henan province alone.

As local officials' obsession with overly spacious offices has been curbed, it is important to make the best use of the "dormant buildings" that used to serve as government compounds.

There have been successful attempts in some places to turn them into high-tech parks and exemplary incubators of modern agricultural projects. However, most of the oversized office buildings are still left unattended in "mint condition", because local governments are afraid that they might be held accountable for misusing them. Some even harbor the fantasy of secretly moving into the capacious buildings one day.

Worse still, they are not really concerned about whether the State-owned properties are used or misused, due to the lack of binding regulations on unused public assets.

Bringing these dormant buildings "back to life" is not only conducive to increasing local revenues instead of wasting public resources, but also putting an end to some officials' wishful thinking that they might reclaim the offices for personal gains.

For that to happen, unused public properties should be allowed to enter the market if need be.