The Vietnam-Sweden Cooperation Programme on Strengthening Environmental Management and Land Administration in Vietnam (SEMLA) has worked well at localities benefiting from its projects.

Representatives from those localities met at a seminar held in Hanoi on July 8 to review the five years SEMLA programme.

The programme has been carried out held in Ha Giang, Nghe An, Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Binh Dinh, Dong Nai, and Phu Yen with the aim to improve capacity at national, provincial and local levels to prevent and control pollution as well as to provide efficient and equitable services in land registration, land information, land use planning and land valuation.

Nguyen Duc Doi from the Land Administration Department said the programme had helped the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment find weak points in the current Land Law and other relevant legal documents and improve the management of information regarding land registration and development of the real estate market.

The programme runs between 2005 and 2009 and has a budget of 250 million SEK; the Swedish Government’s contribution is 200 million SEK./.