By late 2018, Vietnam had 236 industrial parks and export processing zones with a total area of 95,600 hectares; but only 73.9 per cent of the total was put into operation. (Illustrative photo)

The move came after local media reported that several experts had raised concerns regarding the lack of control over the planning process. Many believe that if no strict management and appraisal is applied to industrial parks (IPs), it could lead to a wave of converting land areas within IPs into residential areas in order to seek higher profits.

Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper quoted comments from Dang Hung Vo, former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment as saying that a thorough review of industrial zone planning is urgently needed. While there are many difficulties in making adjustments to IP planning in developed countries, this process is quite simple in Vietnam.

As of late 2018, Vietnam had 236 industrial parks and export processing zones with a total area of 95,600 hectares. However, 73.9 per cent of the total was put into operation.

The government has recently issued Decree No.37 on prescribing the detailed implementation of some articles of the Planning Law. The decree came into force as of May 7.

The decree clearly states that the time limit for outlining national master plans, national maritime space plans, national land use plans, and regional plans cannot exceed 30 months from the date when the planning tasks are approved.

Moreover, the time limit for setting up national master plans, national maritime space plans, and regional plans cannot surpass 18 months after the planning tasks are approved. The limit is extended to 24 months for sectoral and provincial plans.

National planning database system

According to the decree, a national information and database system on planning is to be developed into a portal that connects ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and a provincial-level People’s Committees and then matches them with the Vietnam e-Government Architecture Framework.

The system is to be digitized and integrated with the national geographic database. It will be appraised in accordance with legal regulations.

It will be designed to specifically update dossiers on national, regional, and provincial planning, specialized technical planning, special administrative-economic unit planning, and urban and rural planning. Particularly, it aims to collect databases on marine and island resources, land use planning, and basic surveys on land use among others.

According to the decree, ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and provincial-level People's Committees are responsible for updating information and databases on plan-related dossiers into the national system within 10 days since the planning is adopted.

These stakeholders are also in charge of regularly updating the national system with specialized information and databases according to statistical periods and following the outcomes of surveys and measurements published.

VOV