VietNamNet Bridge – Before May 30, ministries, Government departments and provincial authorities will have to report on their use of land over the past five years and plans on how to use it for the next five years.

Illustrative image – Photo: batdongsan.com.vn

The reports must be sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE).

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered this yesterday (May 21) so preparations could be made for the coming land-use plan.

The Government will set up a central steering committee in charge of this work, to be headed by MONRE.

By the end of July, the committee will have to submit to the Government a profile of the 2016 – 2020 land-use plan for the Government to consider and forward to the National Assembly for its October plenary session.

The plan, to be based on the Land Law 2013, will serve as a reference for sub-national authorities when they make decisions to recover, withdraw, allocate, lease land or change the purposes of land use.

Aside from complying with the spirit of using land effectively and efficiently, the plan will also include measures to adapt to climate change and rising sea water as directed in the Party's line (Resolution 24/NQ/TW dated June 3, 2013 at the eleventh Central Party Congress).

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) will act as a focal point in forecasting land uses for national socio-economic development. The ministry now manages industrial parks, golf courses, coastal economic zones and border economic zones.

So, apart from land use prediction on a national scale, it will also have to deliver to MONRE its review and plans of use, together with projects and properties it manages in different provinces.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) will present reviews and planning of three types of forests (in Viet Nam forests, natural or man-made, are classified by function, including special-use, protective and production ones), land for agricultural purposes (rice and non-rice crops, aquaculture or grazing) and projects and properties under its control in provinces.

The Ministry of Construction (MOC) will offer its planning for urban development in Viet Nam as well as planning for areas under its control that include new urban areas, hi-tech zones, economic zones - except for coastal and border areas under the MPI - and export processing zones, as well as projects and properties in provinces.

The Ministry of Transport (MOT) will do the same with its planning for transport development (roads, bridges and ports).

The provincial authorities (the people's committees of non-municipal provinces and municipal provinces (also called centrally-run cities) will instruct their districts to review the use of land in their respective areas and identify the needs of land in service of socio-economic development in 2016 – 2020.

Massive violations found

A monitoring team from the Ha Noi's People's Council (the Ha Noi organ of State power, elected by people, represents local people) has recently made inspection visits to the city's different districts and found 583 violations in land use regulations, mostly at development projects financed by non-State budget funding, Pham Thi Phuong Mai, a delegate of the Council told Vietnam News Agency.

They include 209 violations in delaying to start a project within one year or more in a row from the time of being given the land; 172 violations in failing to finish projects within two years or more (from the date on which they should have been completed); 72 violations in failing to fulfill financial obligations (not pay land-related fees); and 130 violations in terms of using the land for wrong purposes or out of line with general land-use planning.

Mai said some cases the council had pointed out their violations for years were not handled or handled thoroughly. An example is the project to build resident and office buildings in Yen Phu District by the IDC Company.

In other cases, the monitoring team found that city authorities had repeatedly issued decisions to revoke investment permits (cancel projects) but ended up in vain because these projects somehow got away and still remained. An example is the project to build the Red Cross Hospital in Hoang Mai District.

Some projects that were found to have used the land for the purpose different from what was registered in their investment permits still got permission to delay timing to start or extend their delay, for not once but on several occasions. An example is the project to build a nursery at the Dong Tau new town by the Ha Noi Education Development Company.

Mai said some of the Council's requests made to the city authorities as early was in 2012 had not taken by the city government. For instance, the council had demanded that there be criteria to grant permission to project delays.

VNS