Discussing the plan to adjust land use targets until 2025

On the morning of January 4, the Government held an online conference to give opinions on the plan to adjust land use targets in Decision 326/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister. Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha chaired the conference.

At Nghe An province, comrades: Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Nguyen Van De - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired. Attending were leaders of relevant departments, branches and sectors.

Reporting at the conference, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Minh Ngan said that, implementing Decision No. 326/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on allocating national land use planning targets for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050; National land use plan for the 5-year period 2021-2025, localities across the country have established provincial planning and land use plans based on the targets allocated by the Prime Minister.

However, during the implementation process from 2021, many localities reported to the leaders of the Party, State and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment about difficulties in allocating land use targets.

The Prime Minister has issued an official dispatch on the results of implementing the assigned land use plan targets; synthesizing land use targets that need to be adjusted in the Land Use Plan to 2030 and the Land Use Plan to 2025, in which, assigning tasks to the Ministry and localities in reviewing and reporting the results of implementing Decision No. 326 and proposed needs.

According to Deputy Minister Le Minh Ngan, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has received reports from 63 provinces and centrally-run cities. The Ministry has compiled the implementation results and proposed adjustments to land use targets of localities in Document No. 89/TTr-BTNMT dated November 3, 2023.

At the conference, localities continued to give their opinions on the proposal of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Submission No. 99/TTr-BTNMT dated December 15, 2023 on adjusting the allocation of some land use indicators until 2025 according to Decision No. 326 of the Prime Minister. Ministries and branches discussed and answered questions and proposals of localities.

According to the proposed plan of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Nghe An province has 8 adjusted indicators, including: Agricultural land decreased by 161 hectares, rice land decreased by 12 hectares, land specialized in wet rice cultivation decreased by 10 hectares, non-agricultural land increased by 161 hectares, security land increased by 233 hectares, infrastructure development land increased by 60 hectares, energy project land increased by 60 hectares, economic zone land increased by 58,955 hectares.

Concluding the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha said that land resources are extremely important, as they are the space and the first condition that determines development. However, these resources are limited, so it is necessary to rely on scientific criteria and methods to balance them, helping the process of serving socio-economic development goals.

The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that the adjustment of land use targets must look at national interests, not be based on local or regional interests. Therefore, the adjustment criteria must prioritize national interests, prioritize projects that create spillover, according to the major orientations of the Party and State in transforming the country's economic structure, based on decisions with higher authority and rigid targets on forest area, cultural heritage, etc.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to prioritize adjusting land use quotas to implement national infrastructure development projects, key projects with spillover effects, and regional connectivity projects. The allocation of land use quotas is not rigid, but must be based on the market and the development and investment attraction capabilities of each locality.

On January 10, 2024, ministries, branches and localities coordinated to complete the set of principles, conditions and criteria; on that basis, agreed on a plan to adjust the allocation of a number of land use indicators that had been allocated until 2025 according to Decision 326 of the Prime Minister.