The project of Xuan Thoi Thuong Industrial Park in Hoc Mon District has just been allowed to resume to better exploit the land resource
The HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment informs of some land-related policies and mechanisms in Resolution 98 that are wholeheartedly welcomed by both citizens and businesses as follows
_The HCMC People’s Council is allowed to issue land price adjustment coefficients for cases where public land lots are leased with annual rent to reduce the time of land price determination;
_The city is allowed to use cash or other land lots as compensation for land retrieval from some needy individuals or households, which is called land exchange mechanism;
_Business organizations which lease land and pay rent annually not from public budget are allowed to sell, transfer, or mortgage the land use right, which is to commercialize the land lease right with annual payment of organizations and individuals in transfer and mortgage;
_Investors buying agricultural land use right as a liquidated asset from financial or credit organizations, courts, or judgment enforcers and investors receiving a transfer of agricultural land use right to implement non-agriculture projects but facing land use expiration while still finishing procedures for the State to hand over the land are allowed an extension until the end of June 30, 2024. This helps to resolve cases where agricultural land use rights cannot be renewed;
_HCMC is allowed to speed up the progress of land compensation via conducting land calculation, measuring, and inspection beforehand for key investment projects where the land lots are inside the retrieved area even before competent authorities release land retrieval decisions in order to reduce the time to prepare land compensation documents and ensure the project progress.
The above content is expected to significantly decrease the time to complete essential investment procedures for many major projects, and thus boosting the project progress and reducing overhead costs while increasing the competitiveness of concerned businesses.
In addition, to perfect legal regulations related to the real estate market, including the land use right market, Resolution No.18-NQ/TW mentions a promotion of commercializing land use rights to obtain more revenues for the State budget.
This can be done via developing an information system for the real estate market with land data; encouraging the growth of the land use right market, especially agricultural land; perfecting the relevant legal foundation and fostering the use of cashless payment in real estate trading; introducing suitable mechanisms to ensure a healthy and safe real estate market without land speculation.
Another remarkable content in Resolution 98 is the greenlight for HCMC to change the land use purpose of rice fields under 500ha to better suit planning, which attracts much interest from investors. This is actually an inherit from the mechanism and policy approved by the National Assembly in its Resolution No.54 in 2017.
This is basically a decentralization mechanism from the Prime Minister to the HCMC People’s Council regarding rice fields. However, according to the Investment Law 2020, the land limit in the Prime Minister’s power to approve an investment project using land from rice fields is under 500ha. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust previous mechanisms to better suit this new point in the Investment Law.
This content aims at institutionalizing the resolutions of the Central Government for the shift of HCMC’s economy towards services and high technology. This will in turn transform HCMC into a modern, civilized, dynamic, innovative, and loving one with high-quality human resources. It will be the national leader in digital economy and society, as well as a national and regional center for finance, trading, culture, education, science-technology in 2030. Ultimately, by 2045, HCMC will have been the financial and service hub of Asia.
Director Nguyen Toan Thang of the HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that the most troublesome issue when changing the purpose of agricultural land lots is for organizations to extend the land use right.
In particular, when the transfer of agricultural land for agricultural production projects of an organization is expired, it can be extended but must be switched to land lease (Clause 29 in Article 2 of Decree No.01/2017/ND-CP).
Yet there is no regulation as to organizations implementing non-agricultural projects, which has caused much frustration as well as negativities for both state agencies as well as the concerned businesses and citizens. This has a severe impact on the benefits of an entity with a legal land use right. Hence, the city has asked for and was approved of suitable mechanisms and policies in Resolution 98 to tackle this issue.
The HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment informed that the content regarding natural resources and environment in Resolution 98 proposed to the Government by HCMC for the National Assembly to consider is all based on thorough research and application of the central orientation on decentralization to clearly differentiate the responsibilities and power between the Government and ministries, between the Government, the Prime Minister, the ministries, and the local authorities.
By Do Tra Giang – Translated by Huong Vuong