The Vietnam Government has submitted Report No. 224/TTr-CP to the National Assembly Standing Committee, proposing to include the Land Law (amended) Project into the 2022 Law and Ordinance Development Program, adding 11 groups of policies with clearly defined treatment plans, practical summaries, and thorough impact assessments to address urgent practical requirements.

In recent years, petitions and complaints about the land sector continued to account for the majority of the total number of complaints. The issue of amending the Land Law has been discussed many times with the expectation that it will fundamentally solve the shortcomings, limit the inadequacies of the current Law, and overcome the long-running complaint. At the same time, the amended Land Law is expected to create breakthroughs in institutional reform and promoting development.

On June 14, 2019, the National Assembly issued Resolution No. 82/2019/QH14 on continuing to improve and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the implementation of policies and laws on planning, management, and use of land in urban areas. Therefore, the National Assembly assigns the Government to review and evaluate the implementation and submit to the National Assembly for amendments and supplements to the 2013 Land Law and other laws related to planning, management, and use of land in urban areas.

In the report, the Government also pointed out the inadequacies and limitations of the current law. There is no synchronization between the Land Law and several current laws such as the Civil Code, the Investment Law, the Bidding Law, the Construction Law, the Housing Law, the Belief and Religion Law, the Planning Law, Law on Forestry, Law on Public Property Management, Law on Organization of Local Government.

An urgent need to create an amendment to the current Land Law

Based on clarifying related issues, the urgency, and based on recommendations of ministries, branches, localities, agencies, organizations, and individuals, the Government has proposed to bring the Land Law (amended) to the Program on law and ordinance development in 2022, submitted to the National Assembly for comments at the 3rd Session (May 2022) and approved at the 4th Session (October 2022) to amend, adding 11 groups of policies with clearly defined treatment plans, practical summaries, and thorough impact assessments to address urgent practical requirements.

The Government proposes to amend and supplement 11 groups of policies in the Land Law

The Government also pointed out that, for major policies, it is necessary to wait for the conclusion of the Central Resolution and consult the competent authorities, then the Government will continue to research to better point out the directions for the future. After obtaining the results of the review and opinions of the competent authority, the Government will make additional recommendations during the drafting of the Land Law (amended) project and carry out additional impact assessments as designated of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents.

Amend and supplement 11 groups of policies in the Land Law

After taken rigorous debate and discussion, taking into account the reviews and opinions from all related sectors, 11 groups of policies in the amened Land Law will include: 

  • Clarify the roles and responsibilities of the State as the owner's representative and unify land management, decentralization and administrative procedure reform;
  • Classification of land according to use purpose, space, and land use function;
  • Finalize regulations on land users to ensure uniformity and consistency with other relevant laws;
  • Improve the quality of the construction of master plans and plans on land use and at the same time protect, improve and enhance the quality of land;
  • Acquiring land to effectively exploit land resources for the country's socio-economic development;
  • Completing the policy of changing the use purpose of rice-growing land, protection forest land, and special-use forest land to other purposes;
  • Give clear guidance on land economics, land prices, compensation, support, and resettlement when the State recovers land;
  • Measuring, making cadastral records, issuing certificates; building information system, land database;
  • Manage and use agricultural land to encourage concentration and accumulation of land for concentrated and large-scale agricultural production;
  • Finalize regulations on rights of land users and land-use regimes;
  • Improve the mechanism for settling land disputes.

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