Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to prioritise completing its policies, especially five decrees guiding the execution of the revised Land Law and related circulars to ensure the law takes effect on July 1.

At a conference on implementing the 2014 State management of natural resources and environment in Hanoi on January 7, PM Dung asked the ministry to continue popularising new points of the revised law, which was approved at the 13th National Assembly’s sixth session in late November.

The ministry was also instructed to tighten management of the operation of reservoirs in both dry and rainy seasons in order to ensure they serve the purpose of easing floods during raining season while supplying water to people for daily activities and production in dry weather.

The Government leader required the ministry to work harder in addressing biological diversity regression and environmental pollution in river basins, trade villages and industrial zones. The ministry should closely coordinate with the environment police in investigating major polluting cases, he said.

At the same time, the PM emphasised the need to complete specific scenarios on climate change of each locality so as to have appropriate measures to minimise the negative consequences of the phenomenon on the socio-economic development of the locality in particular and the nation as a whole.

PM Dung also expressed his hope that the ministry will speedily raise the capacity of State management agencies on sea and islands from the central to grassroots levels, as well as intensify the educational campaigns on the important role of sea and island management in the country’s socio-economic development.

In 2013, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment completed most its tasks, particularly in drafting stipulations on land management in the revised Constitution and the revised Land Law which were passed by the National Assembly in November.

However, apart from important gained results, the natural resources and environmental management task still faced shortcomings, especially in dealing with land-related petitions and management of mineral exploitation in combination with environmental protection.

Meanwhile, Vietnam ’s natural resources have yet to be put into full use to serve the country’s sustainable socio-economic development.

Inspector General Huynh Phong Tranh called for closer coordination between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the government inspectorate to reduce land-related petitions.-VNA