Identifying 'bottlenecks' and perfecting land laws

(Chinhphu.vn) - On the afternoon of September 22, in Hanoi, the Central Council for Coordinating the Dissemination and Education of Law organized a Workshop: Identifying "bottlenecks" and proposing solutions related to the Land Law. The workshop was organized both in person and online in 34 localities.

Deputy Minister of Justice , Vice Chairman of the Central Council for Coordinating Law Dissemination and Education Nguyen Thanh Ngoc spoke at the workshop. Photo: VGP/DA

3 groups of "bottlenecks" need to be identified

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Deputy Minister of Justice, Vice Chairman of the Central Council for Coordinating Law Dissemination and Education Nguyen Thanh Ngoc said that the Land Law is one of the particularly important fields, directly affecting the legitimate rights and interests of the State, enterprises and people. Land is both a valuable resource and a means of production, and at the same time a great resource for the country's development, especially in the current period...

In recent working sessions on a number of contents of the Land Law (amended) and related laws, General Secretary To Lam emphasized the need to fully identify difficulties and obstacles in the land sector to have a comprehensive and synchronous solution. In particular, it is necessary to correctly identify "bottlenecks", carefully examine the root causes to remove them, unblock resources, and at the same time harmonize the interests between the State, enterprises and people, aiming at the goal of not having hot spots or land disputes.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Ngoc, there are 3 groups of "bottlenecks" that need to be focused on, which are: Issues that are not clearly regulated, conflicts that cause difficulties in implementation; issues arising from practice but not covered or adjusted by law in a timely manner; issues that are no longer appropriate, causing negative impacts, creating legal loopholes.

Conference scene. Photo: VGP/DA

Ms. Doan Thi Thanh My, Deputy Director of the Department of Land Management (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) said that the Ministry is reviewing and amending the land law to suit the two-level government model. These contents have been shown in Decree 151/ND-CP and Decree 226/ND-CP. To date, the Ministry has received 125 opinions from 29 relevant agencies and organizations, all of which have been studied, accepted, responded to, and given specific instructions.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment always listens to opinions from localities, businesses, and people about bottlenecks and problems in land policies to continue researching and perfecting the Law to meet the smooth operation of two-level local governments and effectively promote land resources.

Removing the "bottlenecks"

At the workshop, representatives of State management agencies, professional associations, enterprises, experts and scientists discussed and analyzed the causes of "bottlenecks" in institutions, difficulties and obstacles in organizing the implementation of land laws. At the same time, they proposed orientations to improve land policies and laws, ensuring the implementation of the amended Land Law is unified, effective and stable, serving the sustainable development of the country.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Association, said that the amendment of the Land Law this time is very important, it will solve the direct problems that are "bottlenecks" and difficulties for businesses, especially those that are participating in the development process. The draft Law has correctly identified the groups of problems that are causing "bottlenecks" including issues of price, land acquisition, site clearance compensation, and land use for socio-economic development.

Among them, the most complicated and difficult issue is land price: Price determination mechanism, price list, K coefficient and pricing authority.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Quang Tuyen, Vice Chairman of the Council of Hanoi Law University, shared at the Workshop. Photo: VGP/DA

Another issue that causes many concerns is the decentralization and delegation of power to local authorities at the commune and ward levels. The current capacity of the grassroots level to effectively support businesses and projects is a big question. There needs to be specific regulations and procedures along with improving the enforcement capacity of the commune and ward level apparatus...

Commenting specifically on bottlenecks in land price regulations, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hiep, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors, said that the law stipulates that land prices are determined according to market principles, but currently land prices are increasing and the State cannot control them, leading to a situation where "land prices chase housing prices, with no end in sight". Therefore, according to Mr. Hiep's point of view, the State needs to maintain management and regulation of the market...

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Quang Tuyen, Vice Chairman of the Council of Hanoi Law University, proposed that this law amendment must ensure consistency and synchronization, and must determine the position and role of the Land Law in the legal system. All matters related to land use must be referred to the Land Law. In addition, the issue of land prices and the input information system on prices must be done by the State.

At the workshop, Ms. Nguyen Thi Tho, Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Notary Association, raised a series of problems in the procedures for transferring ownership and registering land changes. Ms. Tho said that the current process is too cumbersome, causing frustration for people and affecting the business environment.

Administrative procedures after the merger of two-level local governments are increasingly complicated. Instead of two steps as before, the process now has five steps, each step causing delays, making the processing time many times longer, and people have to go back and forth many times.

In addition, the verification of land status for newly issued certificates is unreasonable; the "non-territorial" situation in submitting documents is ineffective; electronic data is not yet connected; the way of receiving documents is inconsistent; some places require unnecessary copies or require changes in permanent address when registering for secured transactions, or the situation of instructing to divide machinery plots, forcing people to donate land for road construction, all of which cause disadvantages to the people...

From the above reality, Ms. Tho recommends the need to connect notary organizations - Land registration offices - Tax authorities; standardize and unify the components of registration dossiers for changes across the province/nation; end the situation of one place receiving and one place not receiving; not requiring two sets of certified copies if not required by law... These solutions will help remove bottlenecks, ensure transparent, smooth and more convenient land procedures for people and businesses.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Tho, Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Notary Association, shared at the Workshop. Photo: VGP/DA

It is necessary to position the Land Law as a "fundamental law"

Concluding the workshop, Deputy Minister of Justice Nguyen Thanh Ngoc highly appreciated the comments at the workshop as being very responsible, frank, open and highly constructive. The comments were not only limited to the Land Law but also extended to issues of incompatibility and lack of synchronization between the Land Law and other related laws. This shows a step forward in identifying problems in the land law system.

One of the key issues discussed was decentralization and delegation of authority in land use planning and plans; land price determination and compensation and site clearance. According to the Deputy Minister, the nature of land price determination is not wrong, but current methods have not created a reliable enough database to determine real land prices according to the market, not influenced by speculative factors.

The proposed solution is to promote digital transformation, make the land transaction database transparent and strengthen the management mechanism so that transactions are carried out publicly. When land prices are correctly determined, the problem of compensation and land recovery will be solved.

In addition, there should be separate, simpler mechanisms and procedures for cases where people agree and stricter processes for the remaining cases to protect legitimate rights.

The workshop also clearly identified the contradictions and overlaps between the Land Law and other laws. An important suggestion is to position the Land Law as the "fundamental law". Accordingly, when other laws are developed, they must ensure consistency and not contradict the basic principles of the Land Law, because land is a means of production and an input resource for all socio-economic activities.

Dieu Anh

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/nhan-dien-cac-diem-nghen-hoan-thien-phap-ly-ve-dat-dai-102250922185720107.htm