All government-owned outdoor advertising billboards in Shanghai will be leased out through an open bidding process beginning next month, in order to maximize profits while preventing under the table deals, the Shanghai Public Sanitation Bureau announced yesterday.

"By doing so, every advertisement billboard will be fully used and no underground dealing will happen," said Liu Weiguang, the bureau's spokesman.

Currently, there are 19,910 billboards in the city, but the bureau couldn't say yesterday just how many of them are public billboards.

Currently, any company that wants to advertise on a public billboard must apply for approval from city authorities.

The bureau pointed out that in order to use billboards in good locations, some companies have offered bribes or gifts to authorities.

Billboards in bad locations are hard to rent out, the bureau added. Officials said they will set a base price according to market prices, but they won't set any ceiling price during bidding.

At the end of 2003 the bureau put all the 154 public billboards on Changshou Road in Putuo District on auction.

Changshou road is a busy commercial road and is one of the 10 famous roads in the city.

Shanghai zhonghui Advertisement and Broadcast Co Ltd bid 3.5 million yuan (US$421,687) for all rights to the billboards for five years. "I think many companies are preparing for this time's auction," said Liu.

Most of the public billboards are located along the streets, or in parks and other public areas.

Source: Shanghai Daily