People's comments on the Land Law (amended) are a valuable information channel.
Dr. Dinh Xuan Thao, Director of the Institute for Legislative Studies (Standing Committee of the National Assembly) affirmed this when talking to reporters of the Communist Party of Vietnam Electronic Newspaper about the implementation of collecting public opinions on the Draft Law on Land (amended) this time.
Dr. Dinh Xuan Thao affirmed that the regulations on land in the Draft Amendment to the Constitution have made certain progress but have not yet reflected the people's aspirations and have not provided a fundamental orientation for a long time. Because the Constitution is stable, creating a legal corridor for the State's activities for many years. Accordingly, expressing agreement with the regulation that land is a national resource, an important resource for national development, managed according to the provisions of the Constitution and the law. Organizations and individuals are allocated land, leased land, and recognized the right to use land by the State for stable, long-term or limited use.
Dr. Dinh Xuan Thao (Photo: HNV)
Dr. Dinh Xuan Thao said that this amendment to the Land Law needs to ensure consistency and conformity with the provisions of the current Constitution (Articles 17 and 18) and the Draft Amendment to the Constitution (Articles 57 and 58). Notably, there are some new points in this adjustment. Specifically, it has acknowledged that land use rights are property rights respected and protected by the State and clearly stated cases of land recovery. However, Dr. Thao also noted that both the Draft Amendment to the Constitution and the Land Law (amended) this time need to consider and study replacing the phrase "recovery" with "compulsory purchase, requisition of land use rights". Land recovery is only in necessary cases, for reasons of national defense, security, national and public interests and key economic and social projects.
Dr. Thao expressed his agreement with the contributions that the requisition must be close to the market price to ensure the harmony of interests between the users of the recovered land and the investors. And it must be clearly divided according to price groups: if the requisition is for national defense and security reasons, it must follow a prescribed price; if it is for public interest or socio-economic development projects, it must be agreed upon.
According to Dr. Dinh Xuan Thao, if the above contents can be clarified this time, it will be a breakthrough in land management, ensuring harmony between the interests of the state, the interests of organizations and individuals assigned land, and the interests of investors, for socio-economic development.
Another new point is the planning issue. It is necessary to clarify with specific and detailed regulations, demonstrating the State's management role over land. At the same time, consider and consider the decentralization of planning, it should only be granted to the central level to the provincial and district levels, not to the commune level. In addition, planning must be public and transparent, that is, the planning must be known to everyone, and the opinions of the people and local authorities must be sought. After being known, it must be announced in the mass media. This is the number 1 important solution in the work of preventing and combating corruption.
In fact, the biggest corruption today is from land, so publicity and transparency are effective solutions to prevent this phenomenon.
There is still a problem and frustration in many places across the country that comes from the suspended planning and planning based on each cadre class and each term, which lacks unity, publicity, and transparency. Therefore, if we consider carefully and inform widely, the above situation will be overcome.
In reality, land compensation prices, in current legal regulations, still have many shortcomings, leading to complaints from people and more than 70% of complaints are related to land and of the land complaints, more than 70% are related to compensation, therefore, the issue of land prices is extremely important. Returning to the issue of land prices and compensation this time, according to Dr. Dinh Xuan Thao, the draft Land Law (amended) devotes a whole chapter to land finance (Chapter VIII: Land finance and land prices), including section 3 on land use rights auctions. According to current law, the Government regulates the annual land price framework, the People's Council and the Provincial People's Committee decide on the land price list applicable from January 1 every year. However, according to this revised draft, the land price framework and list are built within 5 years. This is a reasonable point because it is related to planning, cannot be adjusted in one year, is time-consuming and does not ensure a certain fairness when implementing compensation, support, and resettlement compensation when implementing the project. This will also contribute to facilitating project implementation and limiting the situation of complaints.
Discussing land ownership, Director of the Institute for Legislative Studies Dinh Xuan Thao also affirmed that "land belongs to the entire people, with the State representing the owner and uniformly managing it according to the provisions of law". To further strengthen this argument, Dr. Thao said that this is completely consistent with the requirements of developing a socialist-oriented market economy in Vietnam. The State, on behalf of the entire people, manages and allocates land, ensuring the regulation of the fair distribution of land rent, preventing the possibility of a few appropriating the majority of land rent, creating conditions for people to have equal and direct access to land, and eliminating the situation of using monopoly land ownership to exploit land users.
Furthermore, this regulation is also a way to recognize the revolutionary achievements regarding land of our nation, although the land is natural, the precious land today is thanks to the efforts, sweat, and blood of many generations of Vietnamese people.In addition, Vietnam is an agricultural country, about 70% of the population are farmers, the average land area for production is the lowest in the world. Therefore, land is a material condition to ensure jobs and stable life for farmers.Besides, the content of land use rights according to current regulations does not limit the rights of organizations and individuals using land.In particular, this regulation maintains stability in land relations, preventing conflicts and social complications./.
According to the Communist Party of Vietnam - DT
