The Central Economic Commission (CEC) and the Supreme People's Court have lately co-organized a meeting to summarize the implementation of Resolution No.19-NQ/TU by the 11th Central Party Committee. CEC’s Head Tran Tuan Anh informed that recently, violations of land laws have happened increasingly, but investigation and handling of these cases are not paid proper attention. The reason is the low awareness of several state officials, Party members, and even citizens about observing land laws, leading to officials taking advantage of their positions for corruption or harassment.
Statistics from the Government Inspectorate reveal that in the 7 years from 2013, detected land-related crimes cost over VND2 trillion (US$86 million). More than 67,000ha of land were retrieved. Particularly, the land crime related to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corp. caused a financial damage of over VND2.7 trillion ($116.5 million) and attracted much attention from the public since defendants are high-ranked state officials.
Another serious case is that two former Chairmen of Da Nang City People’s Committee were accused of helping Phan Van Anh Vu to commit land-related crimes to receive thousands of billions of VND from 2006-2014, causing a damage of more than VND22 trillion ($950 million).
The most recent case is that several former leaders of Binh Duong Province were accused of selling 43ha of land from Binh Duong Producing and Trading Corp. with a below-market price, causing a financial loss of VND761 billion ($32.8 million), followed by an illegal legalization of this land use transfer as well as 30 percent of the State’s shares in the corp. to the private sector, creating yet another loss of VND984 billion ($42.4 million).
Director of the Legal Department (under the Government Inspectorate) Dr. Dinh Van Minh shared that typical land-related crimes are land allocation or lease without auction, causing budget revenue loss; inappropriate auctions for land use right and housing facilities compared to the Land Law and land auction regulations; violations in price identification for land allocation or lease.
Lawyer Truong Anh Tu from the Hanoi Bar Association explained that since land transactions are the most lucrative in the market, many individuals would seek illicit profits from them by taking advantage of weaknesses in the law.
In addition, the current land management mechanism is not perfect yet, especially the ‘land price frame’ regulated by the State, which is much different from the real land price. He considered this the fatal weakness. Many businesses now were formerly owned by the State and allocated a large amount of land resource. Their land assets came along with them after equitization. Taking advantage of the imperfect legal mechanism on land, several individuals intentionally appropriate this property.
Former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Hung Vo commented that corruptions and waste in public land use lately are caused to some extent by weaknesses in the Land Law. The State is responsible for land management and allocation. However, normally the People’s Committee of a province keep both roles, which easily leads to corruption.
It is wiser to assign these two roles to two different state agencies. For instance, the People’s Committee of a province or district is in charge of the first role, while the second is assigned to a separate consistent state unit under the management of the Central Government.
“I have many times repeated the words of Karl Marx that ‘Working is the father and land the mother of material wealth’. People get richer or poorer, or even imprisoned because of land. It is no surprise that lately, over 70 percent of denunciations relates to land. Therefore, reviewing the implementation of the Resolution of the 6th Conference of the 11th Central Party Committee is necessary to continue with the adoption of the Resolution of the 8th Congress of the Central Party about perfecting mechanisms and policies for addressing issues in land management and use to ensure a harmonious interest between the State, citizens, and investors” said General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in his opening speech for the 5th Conference of the Central Party Committee on May 4, 2022.
To eliminate land-related weaknesses, Dr. Dinh Van Minh suggested perfecting land laws, reviewing overlapping, asynchronization between land regulations and other laws, correcting in adequacies in land law implementation.
It is necessary to amend policies on land planning and use, land lease and allocation, land retrieval, land price identification. Land use right must be considered a special commodity, priced according to the market mechanism under the State’s regulation. Particularly, the State should introduce specific solutions to strictly and transparently control land retrieval and compensation, as well as household relocation support.
