VietNamNet Bridge – The Minister for Natural Resources and the Environment Nguyen Minh Quang has criticised the authorities in 22 of the country's cities and provinces for the long time they take to grant certificates for land-use rights.

A cadastral worker measures a resident's garden and land to complete his survey for a land-use rights certificate in Ha Noi's Thanh Tri District. As many as six million land-use-rights certificates will be handed out this year.

In 2011, the Government asked local authorities nationwide to speed up granting certificates related to land-use rights and assets-on-land ownership. Last year, the National Assembly approved a resolution on the issue.

Accordingly, this year should see the certificates being finally issued. As many as six million land-use-rights certificates will be handed out this year, bringing the total number of certificates already authorised to 44 million.

However, at a recent meeting to review previously issued certificates, in the first half of this year, localities approved 822,600, involving a total area of 366,600 ha, only 18 per cent of the land that needs to be certified this year.

Minister Quang said that this was too slow and urged for more effort to be made to finish the process, noting that around 2.9 million certificates or 1.684 million hectares of land needed certifying to meet the National Assembly's target.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Manh Hien said that some localities had still not moved to collect the required details or classify problems or misdemeanours, so that they could work out proper solutions.

According to the ministry's Land Management Administration, the number of applications for land-use rights certificates which are pending remains higher than expected.

For example, Ha Noi has 668 plots of uncertified land and apartments, HCM City has 311,000 plots and apartments, central Nghe An Province 335,000 plots and Gia Lai Province in the Central Highlands 218,000 plots.

The unprocessed applications mostly involve difficulties in identifying land ownership or violations of the system, according to reports from around the localities.

Moreover, many local authorities have also complained about the slow disbursement of the funding that is necessary before a certificate can be issued.

The 22 provinces and cities reported they need VND3.175 trillion (US$150 million) to issue this year's certificates. However, only Tuyen Quang, Bac Kan, Lai Chau, Hai Phong, HCM City, Ba Ria –Vung Tau have set aside funding from their budget.

Roughly VND423 billion ($19.8 million) from the State Budget was allocated to support 15 of the localities but only five beneficiaries have received their funding in full. Six have partially disbursed the money and four other localities have not even started with disbursement.

Chairman of northern Lai Chau Province People's Committee Le Trong Quang said that the financial shortage was the biggest obstacle to hamper the certificates being issued.

"The province needs about VND240 billion ($11.3 million) to complete the task but the Government only provided VND30 billion ($1.4 million) and we can only afford VND5 billion ($235,000)," he said, noting that the poor mountainous province had found it impossible to raise any more money.

The vice chairman of coastal Quang Ninh Province's People's Committee Dang Huy Hau, said the province had found it difficult to grant certificates for land-use rights involving protected forestry land because it had to assess this separately.

Regarding the funding issue, minister Quang said that the ministry had proposed that the Government should provide over VND2.15 trillion ($101 million) to support these localities this year.

He also asked every locality to carefully review all remaining applications for land-use right certificates and root out any problems and grant the certificates to the eligible users as soon as possible.

Ha Noi and HCM City were urged to review finished housing projects so that home buyers could also get their certificates.

Source: VNS