INDIVIDUAL or corporate investors in public parking lots will be granted preferential treatment by the Guangzhou Municipal Government, according to media reports.

　　More and more vehicles on the roads have resulted in a shortage of parking space for 300,000 cars. By the end of last year, the number of vehicles registered in the city had hit 1,447,600, with a 7.7 percent growth over the previous year.

　　The eight districts of Guangzhou need 416,000 parking lots. But the city has only 120,000 available. And of the current over 2,000 car parks, 19 percent are makeshift.

　　Generally there are two types of car parks: one affiliated to residence or commercial buildings, and the other public car parks. The reasonable proportion of the two sorts should be eight to two. But the existing proportion in Guangzhou is just the opposite.

　　The city government has completed parking lot planning for two of its eight districts. By the end of this year, it will finish the planning for the remaining six.

　　By 2010, Guangzhou will have 32,000 more public parking lots, along with 3,200 roadside ones in the city’s downtown. This will provide enough temperary parking space for the city’s vehicles.

　　The city will also build some mobile goods-shelf-like parking facilities in the central city. They are said to be economical in land use and looking good.

　　Meanwhile, local authorities stipulate in the new draft of parking space management rules that future developers of housing estates and office buildings must provide enough parking space to go with the projects.

　　(Wu Yan)