VietNamNet Bridge – One of the weaknesses of the current Land Law of Vietnam is that the state has the right to revoke land for private projects, not only projects related to the national interest as the 1992 Constitution requires, said Mr. Nicholas Booth, Policy Adviser for Rule of Law and Access to Justice at UNDP Vietnam, in an interview with VietNamNet.

Land Law should be fixed for fairness

Mr Booth said:



“The current Land Law is unfair to farmers. They are given land leases of 20 years, while urban residents get permanent land grants.  Many rice-farmers have no right to change the purpose for which the land is used.  They are subject to very low limits on accumulation.  As a result, they have insecure holdings and remain locked into unproductive uses of the land, trapping many of them in persistent poverty.

In addition, the current Law allows the State to take away land for investment projects, rather than limiting it for projects of national interest such as infrastructure and national security, as required by the 1992 Constitution.  

When land is taken, the compensation paid to farmers is not based on agreement with the investor – which would reflect the real value of the land -- but upon an arbitrarily determined price, usually far below the real value, pushing farmers into poverty while unfairly enriching investors and providing opportunities for corruption for officials.

These problems have led to a sharp increase in complaints about land, about 70 percent of them relating to land recovery and compensation alone.”   

In your opinion, how should the current law be amended and implemented in order to put an end to widespread complaints and denouncements related to land?




Five key reforms would go a long way towards reducing the level of land disputes.  

The first is to bring the land recovery process in line with the Constitution.  The State should only have the power to take land in the public interest – such as building new infrastructure – and not in the interest of private investors.    

The second is to ensure more transparency and public participation in the planning and land recovery processes.  The recent UNDP-supported nationwide PAPI survey revealed that 8 out of 10 citizens in Vietnam are unaware of local land plans, and only one in five said they had the opportunity to comment on land plans.  Two-thirds of citizens said they did not know where to access official land prices.

The third step is to ensure a fair and transparent compensation regime when land is taken.   Compensation prices should be fixed by independent expert land evaluators, or by direct agreement with the farmers, and not by government officials, and there needs to be a more effective and objective mechanism to resolve complaints.

The fourth is to remove the current bias against farmers in the Land Law.  They should be given permanent land-use rights like residential users, or at least enjoy the same long leases as commercial investors, and have the right to change land purposes so that they can increase the productivity of land use or freely sell land to non-farmers.

The fifth is to make the system of issuing Land Use Rights Certificates more transparent, simpler and more affordable for the poor. Lack of transparency in the process provides opportunities for corruption, as demonstrated by the 2011 PAPI survey which revealed that one in five citizens had to pay a bribe to receive their land use right certificate.

The current law regulates that the principle of land evaluation is “close to market price.” The revised law proposes the “suitable with market price” principle. What are your comments on this change?

This change of wording does not address the real problem, which is that the current system lacks transparency, independence, objectivity and an effective complaints mechanism.  As a result, despite the current law’s principle of  ‘close to market price’,  the 2011 PAPI survey showed that only 9% of citizens who lost land believed that their compensation was close to market value – much worse than the figure of 17% in the 2010 PAPI survey.  
 
Could you tell us some good practices and experiences on this issue?

Most countries restrict compulsory land-taking to matters of interest (just as in the 1992 Constitution) rather than allowing the State to be involved in land conversion for private investment.  Ho Chi Minh City has introduced a system for independent land valuation when land is taken for municipal projects, which has introduced more transparency and reduced complaints.  

What are your expectations about the revised Land Law?

It’s clear that the land reform is one of the most important issues to citizens in Viet Nam, and the recent discussion in the National Assembly Standing Committee shows that the National Assembly members share many of the concerns of the citizens and of the UN.  

I think it’s very positive that this reform is undertaken now, but it’s also important to get the law right, and to take the time to ensure that the new law will solve the problems.  

Inclusive consultation is an essential part of this process. The National Assembly needs to hear the voice of all citizens – especially farmers. The draft amendments have only recently been made public, and now the UN is supporting a network of Vietnamese NGOs to conduct extensive consultations with citizens (especially farmers) across the country.  

I hope that the National Assembly will listen carefully to what the farmers and other citizens have to say, as well as listening to the views of international and Vietnamese experts.    

Fourteen development partners including the UN system in Vietnam have recently published joint key recommendations and a policy brief on land law reform drawing on international experiences and extensive research conducted in collaboration with our Vietnamese partners.      

So, in summary, I hope that the National Assembly will take the necessary time to examine these issues carefully, and listen carefully to all views, so that the new law provides new solutions to address the problems effectively.

Hien Anh