Accordingto Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Minh Quang,this is an important law that has wide and deep impacts on the country’spolitical and socio-economic situation.
He said the revised law has 14 chapters with 212 articles, up 7 chapters and 66 articles compared to the 2003 law.
Itspecifies a number of cases regarding the recovery of land for defenceand security purposes, socio-economic development serving national andpublic interests, and for disaster prevention.
Under thelaw, the Government will specify procedures for compelling landrecovery as this is a complicated issue affecting the rights andinterests of citizens, he said.
The law also states thatcompelled recovery of land must be conducted publicly anddemocratically, ensuring public order and safety, he added.
Chairpersonsof provincial- or communal-level People’s Committees must set upcouncils to measure damage suffered by land owners and decide oncompensations to be paid based on the councils’ conclusions.
Compensation will be paid once and directly to land owners within 30 days after the land recovery.
Thelaw has supplementary provisions stating that provincial-level People’sCommittees are responsible for offering vocational training to personswho have agricultural land recovered and providing support for themuntil they find jobs.
It also has additional provisionson the levels of compensation for non-agricultural land owned byresidential communities and religious institutions.
Underthe law, the Government will come up with a land price bracket everyfive years while provincial-level People’s Committees make calculationsin each specific case.
The law also requires a landpricing advisory agency to join the land price appraisal council toensure fairness in land valuation. It encourages greater publicinvolvement in devising and implementing land use plans as well ascompensation, support and resettlement plans.
Therevised land law will help handle shortcomings and difficulties that hadled to complaints and denunciations in the past years, said theminister.
The law will offer equal opportunities forVietnamese and foreign investors, enabling foreign investors to getinvolved in housing projects for residence, lease or sale, Quang said,adding that it will also provide many choices for foreign investors topay land rents in short or long periods.
The 2013revised Land Law will enter into force on July 1, 2014. To help thelaw’s new provisions soon come to life, Quang said his ministry hasurgently coordinated with other ministries, agencies and localities inbuilding documents guiding the implementation of the law, in order tofurther improve the efficiency of State management on land as well aspromote land resources for the country’s socio-economic developmenttowards the industrialisation and modernisation.-VNA