BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Natural Resources has recently issued the "Guiding Opinions on Exploring and Promoting the Development and Utilization of Urban Underground Space" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), in order to fully tap the potential of underground space resources and enhance the comprehensive carrying capacity of cities, according to a report from the Ministry of Natural Resources.

An official from the Department of Natural Resource Ownership and Equity of the Ministry of Natural Resources introduced that China's urban underground space resources have enormous potential, and various localities have already made active explorations and practices in the development and utilization of underground space. On the basis of thorough research and drawing on the results of practical explorations in underground space development and utilization across various regions, the Ministry of Natural Resources has studied and formulated the "Opinions," clarifying overall development and utilization requirements and a number of policy measures at the national level, and coordinating the promotion of optimal allocation and efficient use of urban underground space resources.

The "Opinions" set out the overall goals for underground space development and utilization: over a period of about five years, efforts will be made to promote more complete underground space planning systems in key cities that have the natural conditions for underground space development and utilization, relatively large development and utilization needs, and relatively high management levels; to make development and utilization policy systems more complete; to continuously expand the scale of development and utilization; to make the development and utilization process safer; and to continuously improve the capacity for territorial space support, so as to provide better factor guarantees for high-quality economic and social development and high-level security.

According to the introduction, the "Opinions" mainly focus on four aspects: strengthening the overall guiding role of planning, improving the policy system for land supply, standardizing the planning management of construction projects, and improving property rights management. At the national level, they put forward policy measures to ease the tight supply-demand situation of urban land resources and expand urban space.