Congress Briefs, November 14, 2012

Guangzhou Deputy Mayor Gong Erzhen has called on the city's young civil servants to embrace Cantonese, the Guangzhou Daily reported. Gong said only those who truly understood the city and its culture could excel at their jobs. "Cantonese is a very unique part of Guangzhou's culture," said Gong, who was born in the city. "New civil servants must experience more and develop feelings about the city." She said there were over 16 million people in Guangzhou. Mimi Lau

Beijing has started construction on 153,000 units of affordable housing in the first 10 months of this year - nearly 96 per cent of its 2012 goal - the city's Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said yesterday. The city has since 2010 accelerated affordable housing projects using 23.9 billion yuan (HK$ 29.5 billion) in bank loans secured through an employee housing allowance scheme. The city government said that since 2007, it had either begun construction of or bought from developers more than 700,000 affordable homes. Raymond Li