Reserved land in Binh Thanh District abandoned for years
The reported land areas unclaimed and unused include 7,526m2 of land in Tan Thoi Nhat Ward (District 12), a block at the Pham Van Dong – No Trang Long intersection (Ward 13, Binh Thanh District), and a plot belonging to the future Centa Park project in 678 Au Co Complex Zone (Tan Binh District), among others.
According to the Land Law and its guiding documents, if lands claimed by the government for future projects are not utilized after 3 years, competent agencies must adjust or cancel the land use plans at the administrative level.
In addition, other laws also specify conditions investors must meet to acquire land from the gov’t, namely financial stability, ability to sign mortgages, and having no records of land law violation.
To efficiently utilize the land resources, HCMC authorities in addition to legal regulations issued a number of resolutions to supervise the formulation, implementation and management of urban planning.
Accordingly, hundreds of projects covering over 6,000 hectares of land got revoked due to infeasibility or delayed execution. The city has also asked administrations to consider confiscating land that were assigned to investors but have not been used properly and returning the land use rights to original owners.
Despite efforts from the higher-ups, there are hundreds of delayed projects affecting local people whose rights might not be restored immediately after the projects are implemented, such as the Urban Binh Quoi - Thanh Da (Binh Thanh District), Northwest Urban Area, Safari Project (Cu Chi District).
On the other hand, delays may not be the fault of investors in some cases, as many businesses struggle with administrative roadblocks.
Experts propose that when the specified time frame to implement the project expires, the project should automatically be declared revoked and land use rights returned to original owners. In case the delays are due to administrative roadblocks, investors should receive leeway and preferential policies to help speed things up.
