Collect scientists’s opinions on the dradt amended land Law

The Conference was chaired by Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front – Mr. Do Van Chien; Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister – Mr. Tran Hong Ha; Member of the Party Central Committee, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly – Mr. Nguyen Duc Hai; President of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations – Mr. Phan Xuan Dung.

Focus on giving suggestions on how the land policy can be fully institutionalized and legally qualified

President of VUSTA, Mr. Phan Xuan Dung delivered the opening speech of the Conference

The conference focused on 12 topics including: Land allocation, land lease, permission to change land use purpose; Regarding land users and households using land; Grounds, authority, procedures for formulation and adjustment of master plans on land use; Land policy towards ethnic minorities; Cases of land recovery for socio-economic development for national and public interests; Regulations on compensation, support and resettlement when the State recovers residental land; The use of land for the implementation of investment projects through the agreement of land use rights; The permission to transfer or mortgage the lease right in the land lease contract with annual payment; Principles of land price determination, specific land price list; Authority to settle land disputes; The regime of land use in industrial parks, export processing zones and industrial clusters; and Land policy for social housing, housing for workers.

Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Tran Hong Ha speaks at the Conference

Emphasizing that the amendment and supplementation of the 2013 Land Law is an important political and legal event of the country, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha highly appreciated the organization of consultations with organizations, scientists and scientists. The management and people of all classes are very practical, specifically, have many very enthusiastic and profound opinions, which are an important basis for perfecting the Land Law (amended) to submit to the competent authorities.

Ha stated that land management is a very large and crucial issue, covering all economic and social fields, security, defense, diplomacy... Land Law can be considered as the original law. Proper settlement of land policies and laws contributes to creating a stable and transparent legal environment, freeing development resources, ensuring security and defense, political and social stability, environmental protection, sustainable development, ensuring the legitimate rights of the people.

The process of collecting comments on the draft Land Law (amended) also contributes to assessing the capacity of the executive, legislative and political systems in institutionalizing major policies of the Party and State in the field of law. In this area, specifically Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW, dated June 16, 2022 on "Continuing to renovate and perfect institutions and policies, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of land management and use, creating a driving force for our country to become a high-income developed country".

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, 8 contents of the draft Land Law (amended) were approved by experts, scientists, member organizations of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and VUSTA contributed ideas not only with enthusiasm, intelligence, and depth, but also demonstrated the spirit of democracy and collective.

The Deputy Prime Minister hoped that scientists and managers would continue to give direct comments on the articles and chapters in the draft Law that have not been fully institutionalized, scientific, rigorous and feasible in the spirit of Resolution 18 -NQ/TW and ensure the language of expression is popular, easy to understand and feasibly to implement.

Based on that spirit, the Deputy Prime Minister suggested that delegates focus on the following contents.

Firstly, the effectiveness of the land use control, allocation and control mechanisms designed in the draft Land Law, as well as the ability to deal with the relationship between land use planning and other national and interdisciplinary plans to create better management tools, without overlap.

Secondly, the feasibility of regulations on land economics, land finance, and land pricing under the market mechanism.

Thirdly, the mechanism of land acquisition, support, compensation and resettlement has ensured people have living conditions, better livelihoods after resettlement, benefit from projects on the basis of a comprehensive and complete assessment of economic and social impacts, labor mobility, and the relationship between the State and the people.

Fourthly, the policy of transferring and transferring the right to lease land in order to ensure financial stability, put land resources into development without creating interest groups.

Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front – Mr. Do Van Chien speaks at the Conference

Speaking at the conference, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front – Mr. Do Van Chien suggested that, after consulting the people, the Drafting Board of the Land Law 2023 should have a selective assessment and absorption. Mr. Do Van Chien requested a proper feedback or receive mechanism for comments. Contributions will be synthesized by the Vietnam Federation to send to relevant agencies to study, absorb and revise the Draft Land Law (amended), and submit it to the National Assembly for consideration at the next session...

There should be a land pricing mechanism according to market principles, ensuring objectivity and accuracy

Within the framework of the Conference, experts and scientists focused on giving opinions on the following contents: abolishing the land price bracket, the land price list mechanism; land use planning; land for ethnic minorities...

Former Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front – Mr. Ngo Sach Thuc delivered a speech

Mr. Ngo Sach Thuc - former Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, said that this draft Land Law (amended) introduces innovative points to receive comments, social criticism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and the people. The Draft Law has institutionalized major policies in Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW of the Central Committee and solved practical problems, in line with development trends and with many new contents, specifically: Renovating and improving the quality of master plans and plans on land use; Completing regulations on land allocation, land lease and land use purpose change; Completing regulations on compensation, support, resettlement and land recovery; provide a mechanism for determining land prices according to market principles; Prescribing higher tax rates for land users; Compulsory registration of land use rights; Expanding subjects and limits for receiving transfer of agricultural land use rights; Multi-purpose land use and management; Promoting digital transformation in the field of land management and use...

In the draft Land Law (amended), the land price bracket has been removed and the land price frame toward market-based approach. On the other hand, the proposed policies and solutions must be directed towards the real demand for housing, healthy real estate market, against "manipulation", "speculation", the mechanism must be open and transparent.

However, it is also necessary to see the advantage of self-negotiation that has promoted the rapid implementation of recent projects, so at this stage there should be a transitional clause in the draft Law allowing investors to agreement and change the purpose of land use for project implementation (including urban and commercial housing projects) in order to institutionalize Resolution No. 18-NQ-TW.

Former Chairman of the Law Committee of the National Assembly – Mr. Phan Trung Ly speaks at the Conference

Regarding finance and land prices, former Chairman of the Law Committee of the National Assembly – Mr. Phan Trung Ly emphasized that these are the most important and complicated issue today, so the provisions in the draft need to be supplemented. Specifically, it should be clearly stated in the draft Law that there should be a land pricing mechanism based on market principles, ensuring objectivity and accuracy in the spirit of Resolution 18/NQ-TW. Specifically, land price, land price bracket, land use levy calculation time after land allocation decision issued; regulations on land use of equitized enterprises in the direction of separating land price from enterprise value. Equitized enterprises must fulfill financial obligations on land like other enterprises; equitized enterprises may only use land for production and business activities according to the approved plan.

Head of the Department of Land Law and Real Estate Business, Faculty of Economic Law, Hanoi Law University – Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga commented on the content of allowing the transfer and mortgage of lease rights in the annual land lease contract.

Director of the Institute of Land Management and Rural Development – Mr. Nguyen Ba Long said that, from the practice of exercising rights, the trend of reforming administrative procedures and personal experience in population management like in Western countries, stipulating the removal of household registration books and the use of identified card, the amended Land Law should remove the land user as "Household".

According to Mr. Nguyen Ba Long, for the certificate of land use right issued by household then allow land users to issue and change land use right certificates to record by listing individuals with common land use rights on the land use right certificates as in Clause 5, Article 143 of the draft Law. But the paragraph should be omitted: “In case members who have the same land use rights of the household have demand, issue a Certificate with the name of the representative of the household on the Certificate and give it to the representative of the household” to avoid future granting requests to households.

Regarding land acquisition, Mr. Nguyen Ba Long said: "The draft law needs to be more specific about where the second land plot is. In case the land user violates due to dishonest declaration to enjoy the resettlement policy, or the agency implementing compensation and resettlement due to negligence, what will be the sanctions? How to fix it when mistakes happen?

"In addition, the draft stipulates that the change of land use purpose is not associated and consistent with the change of forest use purpose, leading to the inadequacy situation as in the past. It is a project that must carry out two parallel procedures and must be approved by the People's Council or the Prime Minister to decide (depending on the size of the area and type of forest), troublesome procedures and have to consult the relevant departments twice" emphasized Mr. Long.

Conference scene

In another aspect, Mr. Nguyen The Dung - Independent expert, Mekong River Land Governance Project said: several gaps expose in the Draft Law, the right to use land and the collective practice of land use rights has not been recognized, traditional practices of ethnic minorities as a group or community to allocate land/allow access to manage, use and benefit from land; Lack of attention to the consensus of people and communities in important land management activities, especially those that have the potential to affect the livelihoods or living space of small production households and local people ethnic minority; lack of suitable conflict resolution mechanisms and the provision of legal assistance and advice.

According to Mr. Nguyen The Dung, it is necessary to clarify the definition of community of land users; add a clause to Article 23 to affirm the commitment to respect the living space, the right to use land according to the customs of ethnic minorities, to give priority to the allocation of forest land to communities and ethnic minorities; recognize ethnic minority groups and communities as eligible land users for land allocation; provide a clear mechanism for land allocation and land redistribution; integrate mechanisms for resolving complaints, conflicts and legal aid when required, especially in the process of compensation recovery and resettlement, land accumulation...

Vice Chairman of Vietnam Urban Development Planning Association – Mr. Dao Ngoc Nghiem speaks at the Conference

Regarding land use planning, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Development Planning Association Dao Ngoc Nghiem said that, compared to the 2013 Land Law, this draft Land Law (amended) has many regulations more specific and scientific. Regarding the planning system, the land use plan (Article 61) basically remains the same as the 2013 Law (adding the provincial planning). Regarding the content of each type of land use planning, especially at the provincial level, the district needs to review it more carefully to avoid overlapping with the provincial planning, the district is implementing it according to the 2017 Planning Law, which has been integrated into the provincial planning (Article 27 of the Law on Planning).

In the draft (article 60) referring to the relationship with regional planning, the national master plan is unclear, which needs to be carried out in parallel with the principle of top down, bottom up, sideways as Resolution 61/2022/QH15 on removing difficulties... and improving the quality of planning for the period 2021 - 2030. According to Mr. Dao Ngoc Nghiem, regulations on land use planning were approved in the first year of the planning period (Clause 5, Article 67) needs to be reviewed because with a large volume, this regulation is not close to the actual resources that need to be studied from the results of planning supervision by the National Assembly after the 2017 Planning Law. Collecting opinions on land use planning other than those specified in Article 68 should clearly state that opinions must be obtained from the People's Council and socio-professional organizations.

At the conference, the Rector of Forestry University – Mr. Pham Van Dien said that, in Article 155, 156 of the Draft, the right to decide on specific land prices was assigned to the People's Committee of the province and the People's Committee of the district; The composition of the specific land price appraisal council also does not have a representative of the People's Council (province and district level). Thus, the State, as the representative of the owner, assigns it to the State administrative agency to decide, not by the National Assembly or the People's Council, (representative agency for the people) to decide or be allowed to participate in the composition of the land price appraisal council. Therefore, it is advisable to separate the right to represent the owner and the power to manage the State (social management), then design decentralization (functions, tasks, authority) for the two respective agencies, the right to represent the owner shall be assigned to the National Assembly and the People's Council; State administrative management rights shall be assigned to the Government and People's Committees at all levels.

According to Vice President of Vietnam Association of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development – Mr. Nguyen Van Tien, in recent decades, with the growing religious situation, the increase in the number of followers, the demand for religious activities and social activities, religions are more interested in expanding, to build new religious and social establishments... from which the demand for land use arises. The complicated situation related to religious establishment land poses the problem that it is necessary to renew the legal mechanism and policy on religious establishment land to be more suitable in the current context.

National Assembly Vice Chairman – Mr. Nguyen Duc Hai highly appreciated organizations and scientists for their comments on the Land Law (amended) project.

Speaking at the end of the Conference, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly – Mr. Nguyen Duc Hai highly appreciated organizations and scientists for their comments on the (amended) Land Law project. Every effort contributed by organizations and scientists is absorbed and scientifically explained to continue to be submitted to the National Assembly for comments at the next 5th Session.

Hai affirmed that amending the Land Law is a very important legislative task in the 15th National Assembly term. This is a wide-ranging law project involving many branches, fields, classes of people, businesses, agencies, units, individuals, organizations and all political, economic and social aspects…

The 2013 Land Law has had positive aspects in the socio-economic development of the country, but the amendment of this Law is also to overcome the shortcomings, the existence of the Law after 10 years of implementation in order to follow the practice more closely; and at the same time fight against corruption, negativity and waste in order to mobilize resources for socio-economic development.

In order for the amendment of the Land Law to really contribute to the development of the country and overcome the inadequacies, exists, Mr. Nguyen Duc Hai asked VUSTA to coordinate with agencies to continue to collect comments from delegates, experts, scientists, people from all walks of life on the draft Land Law (amended) in many dimensions in different regions on land issues through many different channels. In addition, Hai hoped VUSTA, Government agencies, the agencies of the National Assembly should continue to listen to and synthesize comments and suggestions, maximum absorption and explanation on the draft Land Law (amended) to report to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration before submitting to the National Assembly for comments at the 5th Session next May.