China will maintain efforts to curb overheated investment in fixed assets throughout the second half of the year, according to the minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

In his report on the NDRC website, Ma Kai said curbing excessive growth of investment and loans and reining in the trade surplus are major macro-economic objectives in the second half of the year.

Curbing sizzling investment in fixed assets will be the key as more efforts are made to control land use and bank lending, Ma said in his report.

Ma said the NDRC would exercise stringent control over land use ratification, intensify the management of land for industrial use, and raise land use fees for new construction projects.

The NDRC will tighten control of new projects and check the aimless expansion of sectors characterized by high energy consumption, serious pollution and overproduction by lifting thresholds for market access, said the minister.

The NDRC will also make more efforts to increase farmers' income and promote agricultural production, cut energy consumption and pollutant emission and upgrade industrial structures, he said.

The NDRC will focus on solving problems that really concern people such as education, employment, medical services and work safety, said Ma.

More efforts will be made to deepen reform in investment and resources pricing systems as well as in sectors such as electricity, postal services, railways and telecommunication.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBC) showed that investment in fixed assets for the first half of the year were more than 4.23 trillion yuan (US$530 billion), up 29.8 percent year on year nationwide, and up 31.3 percent in urban areas.

China has adopted a series of measures to cool down the country's white-hot economy. Urban fixed assets investment in August grew 21.5 percent, down 5.9 percent from July, according to statistics from the NBS.

(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2006)