Seeking comments on the Draft Law on Land (amended)

Comrade Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province chaired the conference. Attending the conference were Comrade Nguyen Van De - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Overview of the conference to collect comments on the draft Land Law (amended). Photo: An Quynh

Through implementing the provisions of the 2013 Land Law for nearly 10 years, besides the advantages,Land Lawhas revealed many limitations and shortcomings. Therefore, amending and supplementing the provisions of the Land Law, and at the same time adding new policies to adjust some contents arising in practice, is necessary to meet the needs of effective management and use of land resources for socio-economic development, ensuring the rights and legitimate interests of people and businesses.

At the conference, delegates contributed many valid opinions, focusing on 10 main issues including: Rights and responsibilities of the State and citizens regarding land; Rights and obligations of land users; Land use planning and plans; Regulations on land recovery and requisition to ensure publicity, transparency, and reduce complaints; Compensation, support, and resettlement when the State recovers land; Land allocation, land lease, and change of land use purpose; Land registration, issuance of certificates of land use rights, house ownership rights, and other assets attached to land; Land finance, land prices; Land use regime; Supervision, inspection, examination, settlement of disputes, complaints, denunciations, and handling of violations of land laws.

Delegates give comments at the conference. Photo: An Quynh.

Many opinions suggest that it is necessary to clarify the provisions in Point 3, Article 79 on compensation, support and resettlement plans. The above provision needs to be clarified further on the principle of "compensation in cash according to the specific land price of the type of recovered land decided by the People's Committee at the competent level at the time of approving the compensation, support and resettlement plan."

Opinions also suggested considering the amendment: "Cash compensation is based on land prices according to market prices at the time of land acquisition". However, determining the market price at the time of land acquisition is a difficult problem, requiring the participation of all levels, sectors and localities. Moreover, due to lack of funds, there are cases where compensation plans have been approved but the payment period has been extended, so when the time comes to receive the money, the price is different and people do not accept it, causing difficulties for both the government and the people.

In addition, Clause 4, Article 150 stipulates that land price determination does not ensure legality and practicality, because only when the competent state agency issues a decision on land allocation or land lease can the land area allocated or leased by the state and the legal land use purpose be determined accurately. Land price determination is not more than 6 months (up to the time the state issues the decision on land allocation or land lease). If the real estate market fluctuates up/down, the application of approved land prices is not guaranteed, which can easily lead to losses if the market land price increases or complaints arise from organizations/individuals. Therefore, this content needs to be considered to remain the same as the principle of the 2013 Land Law and it is proposed to amend and supplement the time of land price determination to calculate land use fees and land rents.

Comrade Vo Thi Minh Sinh, member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairwoman of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee, spoke at the conference. Photo: An Quynh

In her concluding remarks at the Conference, Comrade Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairman of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee, said that the delegates all affirmed the approach when building land laws, which is to identify land as both an asset and a particularly important resource so that we can set out regulations to protect, manage and preserve assets sustainably, while creating a mechanism to exploit and promote efficiency on the basis of balancing the interests of relevant entities. Not only that, the delegates highly agreed on the need to expand the scope of collecting people's opinions in the process of implementing land use planning and plans; recovery, compensation, and resettlement support to suit the practical process.

Comrade Vo Thi Minh Sinh highly appreciated the valid opinions, shortcomings, and inadequacies that the delegates contributed to the Draft Law on Land (amended) and agreed to synthesize the opinions of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee to send to the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Provincial National Assembly Delegation and the Provincial People's Committee.