Dang Quoc Khanh – Minister of Natural Resources and Environment.
In recent times, one of the key tasks that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) has focused on is the construction and completion of the draft Land Law 2024 – a law project that is considered to be of great importance and has a profound impact on many sectors and industries in the economy. After the process of absorption, explanation, and improvement, the Land Law 2024 was approved by Parliament at the 5th extraordinary session of the 15th National Assembly on January 18, 2024.
Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh: “Awakening potential, maximizing land resources”
Prior to the parliamentary speech, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh affirmed that the Land Law 2024 was built on the spirit of unity and the direction of the viewpoint in Resolution 18/NQ-TW on “Continuing innovation, improving the system, policies, enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of land management and use, creating motivation to make our country a high-income developed country.” The goal of the draft Law is to simultaneously solve the issues of economic and social development orientation, national defense and security, ensure the continuous development of the country, improve the people’s livelihood, and address long-standing pressing and outdated issues in the land sector.
The opinions of the people as well as the deputies of the National Assembly have raised the unresolved issues, shortcomings, and long-standing problems in the past. The drafting body has taken maximum feedback into the Land Law (amended) to meet the conditions of the country and the people’s demands.
Dang Quoc Khanh – Minister of Natural Resources and Environment.
The reality shows that the Land Law 2024 project, before being completed and approved by the National Assembly, has received the attention of a large number of people, experts, and businesses. In the early stages, during the extensive consultation process, the Land Law 2024 draft received more than 12 million comments and suggestions, which demonstrates the people’s interest in this important law.
Create mechanisms for effective land use and management
Speaking about the continuous direction in the construction of the Land Law 2024, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh said that the goal of the Land Law project is to ensure that land belongs to the whole people and is under the state ownership and unified management.
“Through planning, land use plans, land recovery, land transfer, land leasing, land ownership recognition, land valuation… land policies… these issues in the Land Law 2024 will be clearly resolved,” said Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh before the National Assembly.
In addition, according to Khánh, the Land Law 2024 will serve as a basis for achieving the goal of land management and use that ensures the interests of the people, as well as improving the efficiency of state management and solving practical issues through step-by-step building of a database to effectively manage and utilize land resources for economic, cultural, and national security development.
“Through the Land Law 2024, the State will strengthen inspection and supervision in land management to protect the rights and interests of the people. Especially, it will awaken the potential and maximize the value of land resources to develop the country,” said Minister Dang Quoc Khanh.
Land prices as a driving force for market development
Land prices and land valuation are seen as one of the hot topics of concern for many voters and National Assembly deputies in the Land Law 2024.
Regarding this issue, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh affirmed before the National Assembly that during the process of perfecting the Land Law 2024 draft, the drafting board always agrees that land valuation must ensure market principles.
“The market will constantly change but how to make that market real, not a virtual market. The law will create mechanisms for the Provincial People’s Council to decide the price of land in their localities because only the local authorities understand their land prices, whether there is a speculative bubble or not,” Minister Dang Quoc Khanh stated before the National Assembly.
According to Khánh, to allow localities to decide the land prices themselves in the future, the key point that the Land Law 2024 project presents is the mechanism to provide a basis for land valuation.
The important role of localities in land reclamation
In addition to land prices, one of the issues that people are concerned about when providing feedback on the Land Law 2024 draft before approval is the guarantee of people’s rights when their land is subject to requisition for projects using land.
Previously, referring to the principle that resettlement must be equal to or better than the old residence as emphasized in Resolution 18/NQ-TW, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh emphasized that the Land Law 2024 will establish general principles. In practice, resettlement is still associated with culture, community, and sometimes resettlement is not related to livelihood, not in line with the cultural identity, so the people do not stay.
According to Khánh, “equal to or better than” according to the spirit of the Land Law 2024 means that the State will ensure infrastructure, access to culture, economy… following the policy framework of the Law. As for the specific implementation of policies in each locality, it must be closely related to the reality and cultural life of the people in that region.
“The people always care about this issue, so the local authorities must conduct sociological surveys, contacts, exchanges, and propaganda for the people to understand and agree with the State’s policies, and importantly, the people’s livelihoods,” said Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh before the National Assembly.
