Ordos needs to change wasteful ways

Source:The Beijing News Published: 2013-7-10 22:48:01

According to recent reports, some district level governments in Ordos, a city in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region well-known for its sprawling ghost communities, have had to borrow money from local enterprises to pay the salaries of their officials. Apparently things have gotten so bad that some businesses are thinking about relocating in order to avoid loan requests.

Ordos's well-documented economic troubles have led to sharp declines in local fiscal revenue. Indeed, recent data show that the city's government earnings were down 15.8 percent year-on-year during the first five months. Not only that, but some experts estimate the city's total government debt load to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 to 400 billion yuan ($32.6 to $65.2 billion).

First of all, the government should cut its expenses to keep its debt burden from growing larger. Over the long run, authorities need to take better advantage of the resources which the area offers - namely livestock, coal and natural gas.

The author is Ni Jinjie, a commentator.

The Beijing News



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