“Corruption in land administration and use in Vietnam ” will be the main topic for discussion at the 8th Anti-Corruption Dialogue, which will be held in Hanoi on Nov. 25.

The Anti-Corruption Dialogue takes place twice a year and is co organised by the Embassy of Sweden on behalf of Vietnam ’s development partners, the Government Inspectorate and the Office of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption on behalf of the Vietnamese Government.

While addressing a press conference on Nov. 24, Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam Staffan Herrstrom stressed that the key factors of success in the fight against corruption everywhere, not least in land management, are openness, transparency, access to information, accountability, a vibrant media and protected whistleblowers.

“I am joining this process in an optimistic spirit. The problems are solvable. We are here as partners to help, support, facilitate and advise Vietnam . These issues are difficult in all countries. If we join hands we certainly can succeed,” he said.

According to the ambassador, the theme of the 8 th dialogue was initiated by the Government of Vietnam and fully supported by the development partners because corruption in general and corruption in land administration and use in particular create distrust, affect every one, especially the poor, and hamper development in Vietnam.

“Corruption in land administration in all societies makes the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, at the same time governments lose tax revenue,” Herrstrom emphasised.

To have better inputs to the discussion during the Anti-Corruption Dialogue, the Embassy of Sweden hosted two roundtable workshops. The most recent workshop was held on Nov. 18 under the theme “Improving transparency in land administration in Vietnam ” with support from Towards Transparency - Transparency International (TI) National Contact in Vietnam , the Embassy of Denmark, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank (WB).

The results and issues discussed at the 8 th Anti-Corruption Dialogue will be submitted to the Consultative Group (CG) meeting, scheduled to take place in Hanoi from Dec. 7-8.

According to a survey recently conducted by the Embassy of Sweden, the Embassy of Denmark and the WB, corruption in land management and use in Vietnam is worsening, as 85 percent of the surveyed households said there is corruption in this field and 30 percent of the targeted businesses said they have to give bribes in order to get certificates of land use.

The survey, which was carried out in five cities and provinces – Lang Son, Bac Ninh, Binh Dinh, Ho Chi Minh City and Tien Giang – shows that corruption mainly occurs in exclusive agencies, bodies with low accountability and decision makers./.