The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) held a seminar on March 7 to gather opinions on elements of the 2003 Land Law that need to be amended.
As proposed by the MNRE, amendments and supplements would be made to provisions concerning eight issues, namely land use plannings and plans; land allocation and land lease; financial matters related to land and land prices; grant of certificates of rights to use land and own assets attached to land; land use duration; land use rights upon enterprise equitization; administrative procedures for land administration and use; and management and development of the real estate market.
The MNRE would also study land and housing policies applicable to foreigners to clearly define rights of foreigners who rent land from Vietnamese households or individuals and specify the mortgage of real estate at foreign banks for loans.
The MNRE emphasized that land prices as well as levels of compensation for land recovery would be calculated on the basis of the current value of the to-be-recovered land rather than the value of land after infrastructure has been built.
Participants at the seminar proposed that the competence to recover land for the execution of investment projects would be assigned to land fund management centers which may be developed after the model of public-utility service company.
Regarding land allocation, many participants agreed that the allocation of land to investors must closely be connected with environmental conditions. In addition, investors’ land use needs must jointly be appraised by the provincial-level Natural Resources and Environment Service, Construction Service and Planning and Investment Service.
According to the MNRE, the 2003 Land Law will comprehensively be revised to become a Land Code by 2012.-