WB 'suggests farmers should be able to sell land'

The World Bank will publish a proposal on China's reform agenda, which may include suggestions to allow farmers to freely sell their land, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Chinese officials.

This news is in line with what a World Bank economist told China Daily earlier this year.

The report, the economist said, done in collaboration with the Development Research Center, is expected to be published at the beginning of next year.

This will be the second reform proposal. The first report was released in the beginning of 2012.

The reports also suggests that a large bank should be privatized.

Karlis Smits, a senior economist at the World Bank, told China Daily in an exclusive interview in May that sprawling development was die, in part, to local governments expropriating land from rural residents at artificially low prices and selling it to developers at a much higher market price.