Mai Van Phan, deputy director of the Land Administration Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, outlined the roadmap for developing and introducing electronic certificates of land-use rights and ownership of assets attached to land at a ministry press conference on Sept. 16.

Draft format for electronic certificates completed

According to Phan, the Land Administration Department has drafted the content and format of the electronic certificate and discussed the proposal with the C06 and C12 departments under the Ministry of Public Security.

The goal is to eventually integrate electronic certificates into VNeID.

As a first step, legal provisions in the draft revised Land Law need to be further developed to ensure that electronic and paper certificates have consistent legal validity.

At the same time, the department is restructuring procedures for several public administrative services so they can be completed entirely online. It has instructed and guided several localities to select suitable procedures for the rollout of electronic administrative services.

Another key requirement is completing Vietnam’s land database and connecting it with other relevant databases.

When land-related administrative procedures are processed, population data can be used to verify the identities of people involved in transactions, while information on legal entities must also be authenticated.

The Land Administration Department is also working with the Tax Department under the Ministry of Finance to connect and share information needed to determine financial obligations arising from land transactions.

47.7 million land parcels meet data-quality requirements

On the development of the national land database, Phan said ministries, government agencies and local authorities were accelerating implementation, with significant progress already recorded.

Data has so far been created for more than 68 million land parcels nationwide.

Of these, around 47.7 million parcels, or approximately 70%, meet the government’s requirements for data to be accurate, complete, clean and continuously updated. Authorities expect to meet the target of 80% in 2026.

More than 20.5 million remaining parcels still require additional information and further work to correct, clean and complete their records.

For areas requiring new surveys or updated cadastral measurements, authorities are continuing to monitor implementation in each locality, with completion targeted for 2027.

Unlike previous phases, when work was carried out on a smaller and more fragmented basis, the current effort is being implemented simultaneously across all 34 provinces and centrally governed cities and 3,321 commune-level administrative units. This has created substantial staffing requirements.

In addition to task forces involving land registration offices, local police and specialized local officials, some localities have enlisted university students and teachers to help cross-check information.

Funding is another major challenge.

Although the Politburo and government have approved policies to allocate funding and resources, many localities continue to face practical resource constraints.

Under previous regulations, consulting contractors had to be selected through open bidding. However, the timeframe set by the Party and State for building the land database is relatively short, leaving limited time for project approval, funding allocation and consultant selection.

There is also a technical challenge. In the past, land-data development focused primarily on parcels for which certificates had already been issued. The current target, however, is to establish data records for 100% of land parcels.

Kieu Oanh