On July 21, the Party Central Committee Secretariat opened a national conference to study and grasp the resolution of the fifth plenum of the 13th Party Central Committee.

The conference lasted two days with discussion on four themes. The Prime Minister presented a thematic report on continuing to reform and perfect institutions and policies to improve the effectiveness of land management, thus creating a driving force to turn the country into a developed country with high income.

Chinh said land is a complex, sensitive and extremely important issue for the stable and sustainable development of the country. Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong has many times repeated the saying "Work is the father, land is the mother of material wealth".

Therefore, good policies on land will help promote the liberalization of labor power and resources for development. If not, this will hinder development.

“We can see that many people get rich because of land and many others become poor also because of land. Land is also the reason behind conflicts and disputes. And many officials have been cast into prison also because of land,” he said.

The Prime Minister reviewed the eight gains and 11 shortcomings related to land shown clearly in the resolution. He noted that the Land Law and some legal documents are overlapping, inconsistent and not synchronous, while derogation is found in the allocation of land in many localities.

The real estate market, including the land use right market segment, still has not developed in a stable, transparent and sustainable way and has many risks; and the land valuation and auction methods are unsuitable to current conditions. 

According to the Prime Minister, in many localities, the land in advantageous positions are reserved for real estate development. Meanwhile, the land ought to be put into use for production and business purposes. Once businesses develop and jobs are created, people will come, buy houses and live in the areas, and real estate will be able to develop.

“If the best land plots are reserved for real estate development, there won’t be jobs, while both businesses and the state will face difficulties. So, land must be prioritized for creating jobs, not for real estate development,” he said.

The Prime Minister placed emphasis on the need to stop the waste of land. In many localities, land has degraded and has been left unused because of problems stemming from the past.

“We have recently taken an inspection tour to some localities and found outstanding mistakes in many cases. The mistakes must not be legitimized. There should be reasonable mechanisms and policies to settle the problems,” Chinh said.

The government has assigned Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai to deal with the problem with the principle of not legitimizing wrongdoings.  

Land price framework

Among the tasks and solutions, the Prime Minister stressed that land must not be left unused and wasted, and embezzlement needs to be prevented. The Central Party Committee has agreed on the continued renovation and perfecting of laws and policies related to land. One of the key tasks is amending, supplementing and perfecting the 2013 Land Law and other related legal documents.

“It is necessary to amend the law in a reasonable way to make it more comprehensive and close to reality, so as to avoid the fact that laws have to be amended after several years of enforcement,” he said, adding that chairs of provincial People’s Committee have been asked to direct the supervision of the work of building institutions.

The Prime Minister also mentioned the need to renovate and improve the quality of the planning.

“The planning needs to have a strategic vision and be suitable for the long term,” he said.

The state ensures sufficient resources to make the planning of land use and business field development so as to minimize embezzlement.

Violations and wrongdoings have been found in many places recently related to land allocation and leasing not implemented through auctions.

Regarding the land valuation, Chinh said it is necessary to perfect the land valuation mechanism. One of the ‘breakthroughs’ is the removal of land price frames set by local authorities.

It is necessary to find out the mechanisms and methods to valuate land in accordance with the market rules. Provincial people’s councils have the right to examine and supervise the implementation. 

Land prices must be made public to ensure the transparency. Transactions need to be carried out through trading floors and payments via banks. 

Thu Hang