Due to the economic recession and enterprises bankruptcy, many projects of urban areas and industrial zones in Vietnam are behind schedule, leaving thousands of hectares of land abandoned. Land recovery from these projects is difficult for many reasons.
Hanging “board” to appropriate land
According to the General Department of Land Administration, as of 2012, there were about 1,200 “hanging” projects with over unused land nationwide. Major part of the land is for agriculture, and a dilemma happens when farmers with land in the projects day by day have to see land abandoned while they do not have land to work on.
According to direction of the Government, local authorities have reviewed and recovered land of delayed projects. Of which, Hanoi recovered land of over 20 projects with area of about 100 hectares, Ho Chi Minh city recovered land of over 50 projects with area of 500 hectares.
Land recovery problem has two types: for national interest and for enterprises’ use. In the case of compensating to allot land to enterprises, there must be a price negotiation. And in the case of compensating land for national interest, national price frame must be used. Moreover, Draft of Law on Land (amended) does not pay attention on welfare of people after resettlement. Actually, changing living place of people upsets their living, daily routine, culture, customs and habits. Therefore, regulations on compensation for land must pay more attention on these issues, as well as supplement a point: Before recovering land, responsible authority must elaborate proper plan of resettlement to prevent problems in land recovery and land clearance.
Despite efforts of many provinces and direction of the Government, land recovery still faces many obstacles, including limitation of the legal system and “group interest”. In many provinces, project owners have only shown boards with project plan while their projects have still not been commenced or invested. This is a type of land appropriation of incompetent project owners, who are waiting for a chance to assign or cooperate with other partners in form of capital attribution through land rent right.
Heavy-handed with delayed projects
Considering opinions of people and representatives of the National Assembly, the Draft of Law on Land (amended) has regulated solutions to projects delayed for 12 continuous months and projects with land use progress 24 months behind schedule, from the day of land assignment. In case of not commencing project, project owner will be able to extend lend rent right to 24 months and he has to pay land rent for this period. At the end of the extended period, if project is still not commenced, the Government will recover land unless it is an exceptional case.
The Draft remains the case that the Government recovers land for socio-economic development, including: for implementing crucial projects for socio-economic development initiated by the National Assembly; projects for socio-economic development approved by the Prime Minister; projects of new urban areas, new rural areas; projects of improving urban areas, rural areas, industrial cluster; large scale projects of exploiting minerals, processing agricultural, forest, marine products approved by provincial People’s Committee.
Do Ngoc
Đăng ký: VietNam News
