Effective implementation of the 2013 Land Law

(Baonghean) -On the occasion of the Spring of Giap Ngo 2014, Mr. Vo Duy Viet - Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment had an interview with Nghe An Newspaper reporter about the results achieved in 2013 and the key tasks in 2014.

PV:Could you tell us about the achievements of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in 2013?

Mr. Vo Duy Viet:In 2013, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment was assigned a very large amount of work, far exceeding the average amount assigned annually in recent years. However, the unit's staff united to perform the assigned tasks well. The main results are as follows:

Mr. Vo Duy Viet - Provincial Party Committee Member, Director of Department of Natural Resources and Environment

The review of all types of sectoral and sectoral planning as a basis for management and investment in socio-economic development of the province has been basically well done. The Department has advised on the completion of the land use planning of Nghe An province until 2020 and the first 5-year land use plan (2011-2015); directed the districts to basically complete the land use planning at district and commune levels.

At the same time, the Department has also coordinated with the Departments of Construction, Industry and Trade, Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Agriculture and Rural Development to evaluate the implementation of the planning for exploration, exploitation, processing and use of minerals in Nghe An province in the period of 2009 - 2020; continue to review and redefine prohibited areas and temporarily prohibited mineral activities to advise the Provincial People's Committee to handle them according to the provisions of the 2010 Mineral Law. Continue to effectively advise the Provincial People's Committee on planning for management of water resources, sea, islands and environment, ...

The work of directing and mobilizing farmers to implement land consolidation and plot exchange according to Directive 08-CT/TU of the Provincial Party Standing Committee has been well implemented. Up to now, the planned target of the number of communes that need to be converted has been exceeded (173/133 communes).

Special attention was paid to the appraisal and licensing work. The Department appraised 113 new land allocation and lease dossiers, 118 land allocation and lease dossiers for organizations currently using land, and issued over 9,000 Land Use Right Certificates to organizations. Appraised 54 land clearance and compensation dossiers. Advised the Provincial People's Committee to reclaim land to implement 15 projects; reclaimed land due to lack of need for use in 23 locations and reclaimed land due to violations of land law in 7 locations.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment has submitted to the Provincial People's Committee for approval of the Technical Design - Estimate for measurement, cadastral mapping, cadastral map correction associated with the work of preparing dossiers for granting Land Use Right Certificates for 101 communes in 5 mountainous districts in the province, advised the Provincial People's Committee to grant 18 mineral exploitation licenses, 10 mineral exploration licenses for common construction materials, revoked 11 mineral exploitation licenses, and allowed the return of 1 mineral exploitation license; Appraised 72 environmental impact assessment reports, 21 environmental rehabilitation projects in mineral exploitation and 34 detailed environmental projects; submitted to the Provincial People's Committee for approval of 56 environmental impact assessment projects and 15 environmental rehabilitation projects; issued hazardous waste source owner registration books for 34 establishments; Advised on the issuance of 55 licenses and 4 decisions to extend licenses on water resources... Conducted 36 inspections and checks at 336 units in the fields of land, environment, minerals, water resources, surveying and mapping. The inspection and check teams discovered many violations and issued 16 decisions to sanction administrative violations with a total fine of 76.5 million VND...

The highlight of the results achieved in 2013 was the completion and exceeding of the planned targets of 2 tasks considered as the key tasks of the Industry, which are tOrganize, direct and implement the work of granting first-time land use right certificates for major land types.

PV:It is known that the work of issuing first-time Land Use Right Certificates is a key and continuous task of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in 2013. Can you tell us about the implementation results?

Mr. Vo Duy Viet:For many years, the work of granting Land Use Right Certificates has always received the attention of the whole society. In the past 2 years, the National Assembly issued Resolution No. 30/2012/QH13 dated June 21, 2012; the Prime Minister issued Directives: No. 1474/CT-TTg dated August 24, 2011, No. 05/CT-TTg dated April 4, 2013, in addition, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has many documents directing the implementation of this task. To effectively implement the Resolution of the National Assembly, the Directive of the Prime Minister, and the direction of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Department has advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue Directive No. 14/2013/CT-UBND dated April 22, 2013 on focusing on directing and strengthening implementation measures to basically complete the issuance of Land Use Right Certificates, house ownership rights and other assets attached to land in the province in 2013.

In the work of granting land use right certificates in our province, there are many difficulties and problems, especially the awareness of law compliance of organizations, households and individuals in registering land use rights is not strict, especially agencies and organizations that are allocated land by the State without collecting land use fees; the land plots that have not been granted certificates are mostly of unclear origin; the records and documents to serve the work of preparing records for granting certificates are still lacking, many land plots do not have measurement documents, especially in communes in mountainous districts (over 230 communes have not been surveyed and mapped).

To complete the task of granting the first Certificate for all types of land (the issuance rate must reach at least 85% by area), in addition to promptly advising the Provincial People's Committee to issue legal documents to handle problems, assigning targets for granting Certificates to the Industry and localities, sending staff to fully participate in working groups led by the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee in charge of the block, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment has implemented many synchronous solutions to mobilize all available resources to focus on this task such as: Organizing working groups led by the Department's leader to all localities to remove professional difficulties, assigning the public service units under the Department to arrange forces to directly assist localities, directly each agency and organization to guide the preparation of documents, in which cases there is no land plot extract, it will help to promptly complete the application for a certificate.

With such high political determination and specific ways of doing things, the results of granting Certificates in 2013 not only met but also exceeded the assigned targets. As of December 25, 2013, the whole province had granted 130,931 Certificates with an area of ​​351,504.74 hectares, bringing the first-time granting results of the whole province to 1,293,235 Certificates with a total granted area of ​​918,296.24 hectares, reaching a certificate granting rate of 88.99% (exceeding the target assigned by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment). In particular, the results of granting Certificates for some types of land achieved high rates such as: urban land reached 91.59%; rural land reached 88.49%; agricultural land reached 87.62%; specialized land of organizations reached 86.32%; forestry land reached 97.38%...

Officers of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment check the cadastral map of Quynh Luu district.

PV:Sir, what is the key task of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in 2014?

Mr. Vo Duy Viet:In 2014, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment will focus all resources and strive to complete all tasks assigned by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Provincial Party Committee, the People's Council and the Provincial People's Committee, contributing to the successful implementation of the socio-economic development tasks of the province.

Recently, the revised Land Law was passed by the National Assembly and took effect from July 1, 2014. This is an extremely important Law, affecting many aspects of social life, therefore, the key task of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment is to advise the Provincial People's Committee to effectively implement the revised Land Law. First of all, to propagate and disseminate the revised Land Law to all classes of people in the province, advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue legal documents specifying the provisions of the Land Law applicable in the province. Advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue legal documents specifying the provisions of the 2010 Mineral Law, the 2012 Water Resources Law, the 2013 Vietnam Sea Law, the revised Law on Environmental Protection, etc. immediately after the Decree and Circular guiding the implementation of these Laws are issued.

In addition to the above-mentioned extremely important task of drafting legal documents, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment continues to coordinate with relevant agencies to review and adjust various types of sectoral and sectoral planning. Continue to delineate prohibited areas and temporarily ban mineral activities. Continue to delineate and approve areas for auctioning mining rights for certain types of minerals according to regulations. Focus on handling areas contaminated with pesticide residues.

Actively coordinate with People's Committees at district and commune levels to promptly review and handle problems and difficulties in the fields of the Industry such as: land allocation, land lease, site clearance compensation, land consolidation according to Directive No. 08-CT/TU, granting Land Use Right Certificates to organizations and individual households, etc.

Continue to handle and rectify the situation of illegal mineral exploitation, review projects that have been allocated land or leased land but have not been used for more than 12 months or have been delayed by more than 24 months, strengthen environmental monitoring to advise on handling according to the provisions of law. Strengthen inspection, examination, and settlement of complaints and denunciations related to compliance with the law on land, minerals, environmental protection and water resources, and inspect the responsibility of state management of natural resources and environment at district and commune levels.

In addition to performing well the regular tasks according to the plan and work program of the Industry, in 2014, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment will focus on implementing well the key programs, projects and schemes; continue to perform well the administrative reform work, maintain and improve the operational efficiency of the Reception and Results Delivery Department at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment; participate in implementing well the one-stop mechanism of the Provincial People's Committee,...

PV:Thank you.

Nhat Lan(perform)