Amended Land Law passed by National Assembly of Vietnam at during its 5th extraordinary session

The National Assembly in Vietnam officially passed the amended Land Law at its 5th extraordinary session

On January 18th, at the National Assembly House, under the chairmanship of the Chairman of the National Assembly, the National Assembly concluded its 5th extraordinary session. With a majority of votes in favor, the National Assembly passed the amended Land Law with 432 out of 477 present delegates (accounting for 87.63% of the total number of National Assembly delegates).

The amended Land Law was drafted with great responsibility, thoroughness, and diligence by the National Assembly, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Government, and relevant agencies and organizations. It went through multiple rounds and steps, was presented to the National Assembly in 4 sessions, 2 specialized National Assembly delegate conferences, 8 official meetings of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly (including 1 meeting for referendum planning), and was revised and incorporated feedback from agencies, organizations, experts, scientists, and affected stakeholders, as well as over 12 million opinions from the people.

The National Assembly considered the draft amended Land Law at its 5th extraordinary session following a special procedure, and all opinions of the National Assembly delegates were listened to and explained, with no further statements from any National Assembly delegate. This demonstrates the cautious spirit of the National Assembly and its agencies in legislative activities, always valuing quality and effectiveness.

The draft amended Land Law, after being commented on and revised, consists of 16 chapters and 260 articles. It fully adheres to and institutionalizes the spirit of Resolution 18-NQ/TW in 2022 of the 5th plenum of the 13th Central Party Committee, in accordance with the Constitution, and is consistent and harmonized with the legal system.

The completion of specific contents and resolution of various issues is in line with the actual conditions of the country and is carried out in accordance with the determined viewpoint in Resolution 27-NQ/TW of the 6th plenum of the 13th Central Party Committee.

What changes have been made to the amended Land Law in Vietnam?

For the major contents discussed at the Sixth Meeting, on the basis of research, discussion, exchange, thorough review, the relevant agencies have reached consensus on the following contents:

(1) Land-related rights and obligations of Vietnamese nationals residing overseas;

(2) No expansion of the scope of transfer of land use rights of foreign-invested business organizations (Article 28);

(3) Foreign-invested business organizations receiving real estate projects according to the law on real estate business;

(4) The rights and obligations of business organizations and public service providers using land and paying annual rents for property attached to the land (Article 34);

(5) Conditions for individuals who do not directly work in agriculture to obtain rice-growing land (Article 45),

(6) The principle of establishing and approving the land use plans of alladministrative levels (Article 60, Section 9);

(7) The land use targets defined in the land use plans of provinces and districts (Article 65 and Article 66);

(8) Organization of the implementation of land use plans, the allocation of the land use targets of provinces and districts (Article 76);

(9) Return of land for commercial housing projects, the execution of housing-commerce-service projects (Article 79 27);

(10) Development, use and management of land funds (Chapter 8);

(11) On the relationship between the cases of land withdrawal and the agreement on the right to use land or the right to use land for the implementation of economic and social development projects without the use of state budget funds;

(12) On the types of land for the implementation of commercial housing projects through the agreement on the right to use land or the right to use land;

(13) On the issuance of certificates to households, individuals who are using land without the right to use land without violating the law on land, not belonging to the law on the land, not belonging to the land rented illegally (Chapter 3 Article 138);

(14) On annual land rent payment (Chapter 3 Article 153);

(15) Land valuation methods and cases and conditions for each method (Article 158);

(16) On land reclamation (Article 190);

(17) Eligible users of civilian-military land (Clause 1, Article 201); the rights and obligations of military and police enterprises when using civilian-military land (point h, Clause 3, Article 201);

(18) No amendments to the law on public investment.

Summary of major issues mentioned the amended draft Land Law in Vietnam

Summary by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of some major issues in the draft amended Land Law

[1] Regarding the rights of the business organizations, and public service providers leasing land from the State and pay rents annually (Article 34). There is a proposal to allow enterprises to mortgage the right to lease land for which rent is paid annually.

[2] There is a proposal that public service providers may mortgage land for which rent has been paid for the entire life cycle of the project; consider allowing public service providers to contribute capital by assets on leased land, especially autonomous public service providers.

[3] Regarding the suggestions to continue issuing a land price list every 5 years and adjust the coefficient K according to annual price fluctuation (Article 159), The Chairman of the Economic Commission said this issue has been thoroughly considered by the agencies, submitted to the National Assembly for discussion several times in the process drafting and revising the law.

[4] Land requisition for socio-economic development for the national and public interest (Article 79), there is a proposal to remove Clause 32 Article 79 of the draft law, the provisions of the Law promulgating legal documents 2015 shall apply to this issue.

[5] Regarding amendments to Article 243 of the Planning Law 2017, there are proposals to consider and amend the content of production forest land planning in articles 65, 66, 67 and point d Clause 1 Article 243, amending and supplementing some articles of the Planning Law 2017 to ensure consistency and compliance with the law on forestry.

[6] In consideration of opinions of Deputies of the National Assembly about entry into force of the Law (Article 252) and on the basis of the proposal of the government, Article 190 and Article 248 of the Law are expected to enter into force earlier, from April 1st 2024.

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