NA deputies gave their opinions on the new revised land law and shortcomings of the management by the state.
Although the draft Constitution said land should not be withdrawn for
socio-economic purposes, the revised land law retains this option
The Standing Committee of the National Assembly proposed some changes to the land law on April 17 after receiving nearly seven million opinions contribute to the revised land law.
The revised land law proposed two options, one is to keep on withdrawing land for socio-economic projects. While on the other hand, many proposed to remove this option.
According to the new law, the government can confiscate land for projects related to the national interest and they must compensate the people. Projects serving the public interest are industrial or economic zones, urban areas, rural residential areas and projects approved by the Prime Minister. The normal socio-economic projects investors must negotiate the prices.
Many opinions expressed the view that the government should give clear definitions on which type of projects relate to national security and the public interest.
However, NA Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said it is difficult to tell the difference between social-economic projects and projects that serve national security and interest, so they would need to be more transparent about what type of socio-economic projects were included.
Chairman of the NA Economic Committee Nguyen Van Giau agreed and said key projects should be put up to auction. After that, the government would have more money to pay compensation.
Talking about land withdrawal, Ksor Phuoc, president of NA's Ethnic Council said we currently do not have clear distinction between the rights as a land owner that is the people and the owner's representative that is the state.
"The people are the owner of land yet it's unreasonable that they can't participate in the decision-making process on how to use and trade the land." Phuoc said.
Meanwhile, chairman of the NA's Law Committee Phan Trung Ly said this revealed weak management from the state that could lead to many other shortcomings and corruption. According to Ly, the state should only have limited power over the land.
NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung raised some problems that will need to be answered such as in which cases could the state withdraw land and what type of land would be withdrawn or purchased. They should also give detailed rules about the prices of each type land or they would face serious problems later.
