Utilizing land resources for urban development.

(Baonghean.vn) - Given the limited budget of Vinh City, generating revenue from land plays a crucial role in serving infrastructure development and socio-economic growth.

On May 13, 2015, Vinh City issued Decision No. 2145 allowing the auction of land before infrastructure completion and using the proceeds from land development as counterpart funding for land clearance for the Vinh Urban Development Sub-project. Therefore, to achieve the target of 300 billion VND in revenue from land development, Vinh City and its wards and communes are making significant efforts; however, the implementation process faces numerous difficulties and obstacles.

Over the years, Quan Bau ward in Vinh City has had a relatively large land fund that has been planned, subdivided, and auctioned to generate budget for infrastructure construction and promote socio-economic development. Currently, there is still a lot of land available for development in Quan Bau ward, but it mainly consists of scattered, fragmented, small plots that are difficult to plan for subdivision and auction, and some plots have been converted from rice paddy land to other types of land.

Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quan Bau Ward, shared: In 2015, the ward was assigned a target of 15 billion VND in land revenue. To achieve this target, the ward has implemented planning for 6 land areas, including one area that does not require compensation for land clearance, which the ward will auction in July. As for the remaining planned areas, the ward is focusing on resolving difficulties and obstacles to proceed with the auction in the near future.

Construction of the North Canal Bridge -Vinh Urban Development Sub-project

In 2015, Vinh City assigned a target of 200 billion VND to 25 wards and communes for land development. The Land Development Center was tasked with generating 100 billion VND. To date, the city has auctioned and developed land plots generating 60 billion VND, of which the Land Development Center contributed 40 billion VND, and the wards and communes have only generated 20 billion VND, achieving only 10% of the assigned target. Therefore, in the remaining time of 2015, the wards and communes must concentrate their efforts to complete the remaining 90% of the target. This can be considered a difficult problem for the wards and communes in the city center, as the available land for development has dwindled over the years. As for the suburban wards and communes, while land is abundant, it is less attractive to residents due to their distance from the city center.

Mr. Nguyen Tat Son, Director of the Land Development Center of Vinh City, stated: The process of exploiting land resources faces many difficulties, such as: The process of creating clean land for auction takes a lot of time and involves many departments and agencies. The land prices for compensation and support for agricultural land are very low, even much lower than the 2003 Land Law, leading to difficulties in compensating people.

To achieve the assigned targets, the Land Development Center and the 25 wards and communes need solutions to create clean land funds for auction. Initially, wards and communes should focus on developing low-cost but high-yield land plots, while also planning small land plots to serve low-income individuals and those with land use needs; developing plans for diverse land plot sizes and reviewing small, scattered plots for auction. Furthermore, the Land Development Center should develop a land development and exploitation process, emphasizing timelines, steps, and administrative procedures for wards and communes; prioritizing the expedited processing of administrative procedures related to land exploitation such as planning, plan approval, investment policies, design documents, land clearance, and land valuation, reducing processing time by half compared to before.

Mr. Nguyen Tat Son, Director of the Land Development Center of Vinh City, added: To overcome difficulties for wards and communes, the city and specialized departments regularly go to each locality to resolve obstacles and difficulties in the implementation process. In particular, to ensure counterpart funding and the progress of the Vinh urban development project funded by the World Bank, the city needed to allocate 322.6 billion VND in counterpart funding in 2015. Therefore, on May 13, 2015, the city issued document No. 2145 allowing the auction of land in planned areas before infrastructure completion.

Therefore, in the coming period, after completing the land compensation and clearance for the people, along with the construction of infrastructure in the planned areas, the city requests the Provincial People's Committee to allow the public announcement of the auction process to shorten the time so that localities can quickly accelerate the exploitation of land resources. In addition, the Provincial People's Committee and relevant departments and agencies should also create conditions to allow the City People's Committee to set the starting price before the auction according to the price list issued by the Provincial People's Committee. Only then will Vinh City be able to quickly complete the assigned target for land resource exploitation, thereby creating counterpart funds for investment in the Vinh urban development project.

Vo Huyen