Land economy management spotlighted at Hanoi conference

Hanoi (VNA) – Domestic and foreign experts shared their experiences in land economy during a conference jointly held by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) and the World Bank in Hanoi on July 13.

Addressing the event, MoNRE Minister Tran Hong Ha said that in recent years, the legal policies related to land use have been completed so as to catch up with management methods on international standards.

Making land economy suitable to the market is now an urgent need, requiring the review of land value as well as policy and management solutions for Vietnam in order to encourage the efficient use of land.

Experts from the MoNRE and other ministries, agencies, and research institutes, as well as foreign specialists from France and Japan, discussed various issues related to the building of land prices, while sharing experience in defining land prices and regulating added value from land.

They also debated matters regarding the amendments and supplementations to the Land Law; economic foundation of land policies; and the management of public land and land prices.

Dang Hung Vo, an expert from the World Bank held that Vietnam has yet to make full use of resources from public land despite high potential.

Currently, land tax remains low, while losses in public land value are still occurring in various forms, mostly due to corruption.

Payments from allocation and lease of public land currently account for 85 percent of income from land, he noted, adding that the land use fee and land rent, which are equal to just 30 percent of the market price.

He proposed that in the time to come, the Land Law should be adjusted to help reform the land financing system, as well as overcoming any challenges and obstacles in the public mindset to create more chances for national development.

Vice President of the Japan Association of Real Estate Appraisers Yamashita Masayuki said that the most important aspect in dealing with land economy issues is grasping the land price trend and gathering information related to land to clarify reasons behind land price fluctuation.

Therefore, it is necessary to improve the framework for land pricing and price listing towards pricing land in accordance with the market and take measures to adjust land fees in alignment with market fluctuations.

At the event, participants also gave recommendations on a number of topics, including supplementations of the Land Law and Government’s decree on land prices; the formation of a land price appraising council; and the in-depth research of land economy to serve as a foundation for regulation mechanisms and the building of legal framework in the field.-VNA