At a seminar on reform of the State’s land
policy, many experts have proposed that the State should not continue
considering land as belonging to the entire people, but should instead apply a
regime of multi-ownership of land.
They
raised the proposal at yesterday’s meeting to discuss altering the land policy,
held by the Party Central Committee Office and the Ho Chi Minh City Open
University
Assoc.
Prof. Dao Cong Tien, former headmaster of HCMC Economics University, said the
1992 Constitution, of which Article 17 stipulates that land belongs to the
entire people’s ownership, should be amended to facilitate land ownership
diversification.
“Land
is not a product of nature, so it does not come under the entire people’s
ownership. In fact, land is a product of labor, so if we did not put it under
ownership of those who have created that product, we would turn our back on
them.”
Assoc.
Prof. Dr. Vu Trong Khai, headmaster of the School of Agriculture Management and
Rural Development II, suggested three types of land ownership: state,
collective and private.
Private
ownership should be applied to individuals’ dwelling land and farmland, and
collective ownership can be given to a community that uses a certain area of
land for their common purposes. Meanwhile, the State will take ownership over
land of all other kinds.
Dr
Nguyen Dang Liem, principal of the Gia Dinh University, agreed with Khai, saying
that diversification of land ownership would confrom to the country’s trend
towards international integration.
When
private ownership is applied, farmers will feel secure in using their land and
they will likely use the land in sustainable ways, instead of exploiting it
excessively, said Nguyen Phuong Vy, former head of the Agriculture and Rural
Development Policy Department.
Some
other experts shared the same opinion that “the improper land policy has
resulted in many problems, complaints or disputes relating to land in the
past.”
Dr.
Pham Van Vo, chairman of the land and environmental law department of the HCMC
Law University, referred to the land conflict case in Tien Lang District, Hai
Phong City as an example. “The district People’s Committee issued decisions to
allocate land to farmers and it later handled complaints from farmers about
those decisions. It was also the agency that issued decisions on land
withdrawal or forced removal,” Vo said.
Under
such a mechanism, if officials in charge of land issues are not honest, then
farmers will suffer from their decisions, he said.
Dr Khai
said the mechanism in which a State agency issues land withdrawal decisions to
citizens and then gives them compensation is not satisfactory. Instead, when
the agency wants to reclaim land that has been allocated to a citizen, it
should repurchase the land through negotiations with that citizen.
However,
Khai emphasized that such a change can be carried out only when private
ownership of land is recognized.
Most of
the seminar’s attendees agreed that the current unit prices of land regulated
by the State should be abolished, since they have long been obsolete. Instead,
local authorities should apply new land prices that are equal to 70-80 percent
of the market prices, or to the average market price. Such prices will be used
in calculating financial obligations payable by land users to the State and in
determining compensation payable by the State to those who have their land
withdrawn.
TUOI
TRE
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