More than 3,000 projects and works are slow to be implemented, causing waste.

Panorama of the 7th session of the 14th National Assembly. Photo: VNA

On May 27, the National Assembly will hear a monitoring report and discuss in the hall the implementation of policies and laws on planning, management and use of urban land from the time the 2013 Land Law took effect until the end of 2018. Notably, according to reports from localities, there are up to 3,088 projects and works that are slow to be implemented, with a total area of ​​80,453.2 hectares.

"Inflating" land prices, affecting the investment environment

According to the Government's report, immediately after the 2013 Land Law was passed, the Government built a system of policies and laws related to implementation; completed the planning and land use planning; rectified the work of land allocation, land lease, and land use purpose conversion. The Government also focused on thoroughly handling violations of land law, especially long-standing cases.

However, the process of planning, management and land use still has many shortcomings and limitations, causing waste of land and social resources. In fact, some investment projects using land have been allocated or leased by the State but have not put the land into use, or have been slow to use, causing waste and leaving land fallow. The review, approval of plans and determination of land use rights value when equitizing state-owned enterprises in some places have not ensured transparency, causing losses to the state budget.

Notably, according to the Government's report, there is currently no effective policy to limit and handle land speculation. In some places, there is a phenomenon of land prices increasing suddenly in a short period of time, affecting the investment environment, causing difficulties in managing and operating the macro economy. In some investment projects in the form of build-transfer (BT), the determination of the value of the project and the value of land use rights for payment is not appropriate, leading to the situation of payment for land funds exceeding the value of BT projects, causing losses to the state budget.

Slow implementation causes waste

Regarding inspection work in the land sector, according to the Government's report, from 2015 to 2018, the entire Department of Natural Resources and Environment conducted more than 2,300 inspections; proposed to recover an area of ​​22,362 hectares of land. Through inspection, it was pointed out that land recovery due to violations of land law in localities is still slow, especially for commercial and tourism projects, housing development projects that are not new urban areas...

Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel Project Phase 2 capital increased to thousands of billions of VND. Photo: PV

17.8% of inspected provinces and cities have land allocation, land lease, and land use conversion not in accordance with approved land use planning and plans. Reported data from 48 provinces and cities show that up to 3,088 construction projects are slow to be implemented, with a total area of ​​80,453.2 hectares. Of these, 2,067 projects have land allocation and lease decisions but have not used the land for more than 12 months, or are behind schedule for more than 24 months, with a total area of ​​60,332.1 hectares.

To date, 38/48 provinces and cities have reported handling 1,336 slow-moving projects with a total area of ​​22,707.9 hectares. Specifically, land has been reclaimed from 309 projects; the time for putting land into use has been extended for 195 projects; decisions or notices on land reclamation have been cancelled to hand over to investors for 100 projects; investment certificates or investment policy decisions have been revoked due to slow land allocation procedures for 732 projects.

How is project land in big cities?

Regarding the progress of projects according to planning and the handling of projects behind schedule, the Government said that in Hanoi, 4,188 projects have been implemented with an area of ​​13,462.49 hectares. From 2010 to 2016, there were 2,571 projects in the area that had to reclaim land for site clearance; land reclamation and site clearance work has been completed at 1,621 projects, with a total reclaimed land area of ​​over 8,060 hectares. Of which, there are 55 key projects and works of the Government and the city with a reclaimed area of ​​3,571 hectares of land.

Ho Chi Minh City, from 2011 to 2017, issued 727 decisions on land allocation, land lease, and land use conversion with a total area of ​​2,663.6 hectares; from 2012 to 2017, it conducted a review, detected, and handled 808 slow-moving projects with a total area of ​​6,115 hectares. As a result, Ho Chi Minh City canceled the land reclamation and land allocation and lease decisions for 108 projects with an area of ​​1,552 hectares... In addition, in 2017 and 2018, it reviewed and detected 218 other slow-moving projects with an area of ​​182.8 hectares.

In Da Nang, after 3 years of implementing the Land Law, the city has reclaimed and compensated more than 725 hectares; allocated and leased over 2,122 hectares of land. In 2017 alone, land was reclaimed from 19 projects with a total area of ​​161.6 hectares; allocated and leased 571.8 hectares of land; extended land leases for 75.6 hectares... However, there are still projects that have been allocated and leased land but are slow to put the land into use. There are 4 projects in Son Tra peninsula waiting for the opinion of the Government Inspectorate for handling and 11 projects with slow progress are being inspected and handled by the locality according to regulations.

Regarding the use of defense land, according to the 2016 defense land inventory, the entire army is currently managing 12,212 defense land points with a total area of ​​251,690.5 hectares. The management and use of defense land has achieved some positive results, contributing to ensuring the goal of developing military facilities and defense works, meeting the requirements of building and protecting the Fatherland. However, the Government also pointed out limitations such as encroachment, occupation, illegal construction of works and houses, improper use of land, and inadequate and loose coordination with local authorities in managing defense land.