To complete the national land database in line with the criteria of being accurate, comprehensive, clean, dynamic, unified, and interoperable, thereby supporting the development of digital government and enhancing transparency in land administration, the Government has launched a nationwide campaign titled “90 Days to Enrich and Clean the Land Database.”
On the occasion of the Lunar New Year 2026, a year marking a strong push toward a digital economy, Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper’s Investment and Finance held an interview with Mr. Nguyen Toan Thang, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, to discuss the objectives and implementation of the initiative.
According to Mr. Nguyen Toan Thang, before the implementation of Plan No. 515/KH-BCA-BNN&MT dated August 31, 2025, Ho Chi Minh City was identified as one of the key localities for the development and completion of the national land database, one of the six foundational national databases underpinning the rollout of e-government and the transition toward digital government, a digital economy, and a digital society.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Agriculture and Environment served as the lead and standing agency, advising the municipal People’s Committee on the issuance of a decision to establish the city’s Steering Committee and Task Force. The department also developed a detailed implementation plan to guide and direct relevant units in carrying out tasks within their authority, ensuring that all targets and assignments were met with the required quality and on schedule.
Enriching and cleansing the land database will help establish a synchronized, unified, and shared data system, serving as a transparent and effective tool for state management of land resources. At the same time, it will enhance the quality of public service delivery for citizens and businesses by enabling faster and more accurate administrative procedures and reducing reliance on paper-based documentation.
In the context of local authorities implementing the two-tier governance model, at the city and commune and ward levels, the volume of land management responsibilities devolved to the grassroots level is substantial. This underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive land database, enabling local administrations to strengthen management capacity and better serve the public.
Following administrative consolidation, Ho Chi Minh City has gradually developed its land database, though it has yet to achieve full synchronization across the entire area. Data from the three former provincial-level administrative units had been operated on using three different software systems. Since July 1, 2025, the city has been transitioning its land database to the Vietnam Land Database Land Information System (VBDLIS) platform.
However, legacy issues arising from past updating, management, and use of the database have revealed a number of shortcomings, including overlaps, inconsistencies, and incomplete records, such as missing citizen identification numbers of land users, as well as duplicated or inaccurate land parcel information. In addition, portions of the data have yet to be verified against the national population database.
As for information technology infrastructure supporting land administration, Ho Chi Minh City continues to face a number of shortcomings. While server and workstation equipment have been invested in, deployment remains uneven, connectivity is unstable in many areas, and land database management software systems are not standardized across localities.
Overall, before the launch of the 90-day campaign, Ho Chi Minh City’s land database did not yet meet the criteria of being accurate, comprehensive, clean, and dynamic. Data quality remained uneven, with errors persisting, and information was fragmented across different localities. Technical infrastructure and management software also required more synchronized investment to ensure system security and seamless operation.
Longstanding challenges inherited from earlier phases, such as incomplete historical records, fragmented datasets, changes in administrative boundaries, and uneven capacity among commune-level cadastral staff, posed significant obstacles at the outset of the campaign. These factors underscored the need for a comprehensive, citywide effort to “enrich and cleanse” land data, address existing shortcomings, and move toward building a complete, unified land database system across the entire city.
Ho Chi Minh City has fully met all targets set out in Plan No. 515, with several areas meeting or exceeding requirements. Notable achievements include the review, enrichment, and cleansing of more than 3.8 million land records; the verification of over 4.9 million population data entries; and the synchronization of 100 percent of land data with the national database, earning high praise from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.
The entire Ho Chi Minh City Land Registration Office system mobilized all available resources to scan and digitize records, input data, and update and supplement land dossiers under its management.
The city placed strong emphasis on initial training and guidance while maintaining regular inspections and close supervision throughout the campaign, promptly addressing difficulties, such as by providing additional equipment and redeploying personnel to support implementation.
As a result, the campaign was completed on schedule with assured data quality. It has also had a clear and positive impact on administrative procedure reform, as a clean and reliable land database has enabled the city to approve streamlined electronic processes, significantly reducing inconvenience for residents.
One specific outcome was the review of land users whose citizen identification numbers had yet to be authenticated. Accordingly, more than 4.9 million land users and owners of land-attached assets who had been issued land use right certificates but had not been verified were cross-checked against the national population database, including records from areas where the land database has been established as well as those where it has yet to be completed.
After completing the initial round of data synchronization and migrating all locally operated land data to the national system, Ho Chi Minh City has carried out regular, real-time synchronization with the National Land Database (VNLIS) in accordance with directives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.
Regarding connectivity and data sharing, the city has linked the land database with local agencies to receive and process administrative procedures related to land, land-attached assets, and the determination of financial obligations for citizens and businesses. The land database has also been integrated with the tax sector, while enabling wards and communes to monitor and manage citizens’ compliance with land-related obligations to the State.
In addition, the land database has been interconnected between the VBDLIS software and the National Public Service Portal to support dossier management and administrative procedure workflows. It has also been linked with notarization data across the city, facilitating notarization procedures and minimizing the risk of forged land use right certificates.
In addition, the Department of Agriculture and Environment has continued to direct the Land Registration Office system and ward- and commune-level People’s Committees to update the database on a continuous and regular basis. This aims to prevent and flag potential land disputes and land recovery cases while ensuring the smooth and uninterrupted processing of dossiers from receipt through to the delivery of results.
Building on the established land database and the aforementioned data connectivity and sharing mechanisms, the department has focused on restructuring land-related administrative procedures around a “data-centric” approach. Efforts have been made to thoroughly review and eliminate redundant documentation requirements, accelerate the full digitalization of relevant public services, and lay a foundation for broader administrative reform and inter-agency dossier processing across the city.
These measures are designed to eliminate the need for paperwork already available in the database when handling administrative procedures for citizens and businesses, while also reducing processing times in line with directives from the Government and the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee.
At present, 100 percent of dossiers are processed using the land database directly on the synchronized VBDLIS system, which is mapped and integrated with the city’s administrative procedure processing system and public services platform throughout the entire workflow, covering registration, issuance of land use right certificates, updates to land status, and land consolidation or subdivision.
Relevant units, including wards, communes, land registration offices, and their branches, now handle dossiers through a single, interconnected workflow, rather than separate, fragmented stages as in the past, significantly shortening processing times.
However, a dedicated interoperable application for organizations has yet to be developed, meaning that the handling of financial obligation dossiers for enterprises is still carried out manually.
With the goal of further refining the land database while shifting from a pre-approval approach to post-inspection oversight, the collection and creation of data on the current status of land management and use for integration into the land database software is essential and plays a critical role in fulfilling land administration responsibilities.
Data connectivity and integration help ensure transparency and synchronization among the tax authorities, land registration offices, commune-level People’s Committees, and the Department of Agriculture and Environment, thereby reducing the need for citizens to resubmit documentation already held by the State.
The development and operation of the land database have already delivered clear benefits, notably by shortening dossier processing times as officials can readily look up and cross-check information on land parcels, land users, and related data. This has reduced manual handling, minimized errors, and enhanced transparency.
In the period ahead, the Department of Agriculture and Environment will advise the city's People’s Committee on restructuring land-related administrative procedures in a more streamlined manner. This will include eliminating unnecessary processing steps; reducing dossier requirements by directly leveraging data already available in the land database, the national population database, and other relevant databases; and further shortening processing timelines. The goal is to move toward higher-level online public services that are more convenient and efficient for citizens and businesses.
The department also plans to develop unique land parcel identifiers to enable integration and interoperability with the national digital address platform and other national databases.
Following the 90-day campaign, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Agriculture and Environment has identified its key task for 2026 as continuing to refine the land database in line with Plan No. 515/KH-BCA-BNN&MT. Regular updates to the database will be maintained, with the management, updating, and adjustment of land data defined as a routine and continuous responsibility of all levels of government.
After the campaign, the department has continued to direct the city’s land registration office system to promptly record daily land-use changes in the system, including new issuances, transfers, mortgages, inheritance cases, and planning-related changes. This approach aims to ensure that the database is consistently operated and updated to remain accurate, complete, clean, dynamic, unified, and shared and to reflect real-world land use in a timely manner.
In addition, strong emphasis is being placed on data security and protection, including the maintenance of periodic data backup mechanisms, the upgrading of security firewalls, and coordination with the Department of Science and Technology and the city police to conduct cybersecurity assessments of the system.
The Department of Agriculture and Environment will advise the municipal People’s Committee on strengthening the capacity of personnel responsible for managing and operating the land database. Specialized training programs on software use and data updates will continue to be organized for cadastral officers at the commune and ward levels to ensure that 100 percent of local administrations are able to operate the system proficiently.
The city will also allocate additional resources and upgrade technical infrastructure as needed, including the procurement of equipment and expansion of network capacity, to ensure the smooth and continuous updating of the database. On the institutional front, internal regulations governing the management and use of land data will be developed and refined.
