Land Law a hot topic in National Assembly talks
03-05-2013
Land issues are the centre of debate at the National Assembly Standing Committee meeting last week
According to chairman of the National Assembly’s (NA) Economic Committee Nguyen Van Giau, the committee’s members were divided over the issue of land reclaimation. “Many NA delegates have supported the regulation which states that the government has the right to ‘repossess’ land but some others propose that the phrase ‘taking back the land with payment’ should be the replacement,” Giau said. This changing concept, Giau said, better reflected people’s right to use land, one of the assets protected by the laws. The word ‘repossess’ could be used in case land owners violated the land laws, he said. Ksor Phuoc, chairman of the NA’s Ethnic Council, said there was no clear distinction between the rights of a land owner that is the people and the owner’s representative that is the state.
“The people are the owner of land, thus they must be able to participate in the decision-making process on how to use and trade the land,” Phuoc said. Phung Quoc Hien, chairman of the NA’s Finance and Budget Committee, also proposed to clarify the rights of land users and the state as land-ownership representative and uniform land management. Chairman of the NA’s Law Committee Phan Trung Ly said land could be withdrawn for various reasons, from national security purposes and public interest to land violations, expiry of land use rights and voluntary return of land. “For different cases, there must different regulations on jurisdiction and procedures of land eviction,” he said. Ly stressed that the state’s weak management could lead to many other shortcomings and corruption.
NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung concluded that apart from land used for security and defense purposes, the revised Land Law would clarify which kind of land would be repossessed without any compensation and which would be withdrawn via negotiations with the market price taken into account. NA Deputy Chairman Uong Chu Luu said that the “repossessing” policy must be applied to land for projects and constructions which are decided to invest by the NA and land for industrial parks, high-tech parks, economic zones and ODA-funded projects. Other projects and cases would be strictly implemented under the policy of land withdrawal with compensation in line with market prices.
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