Laws of Vietnam

In order to overcome step by step those weaknesses and bring the management and use of land into line and in accordance with law, the Prime Minister instructs the branches, the administrative levels, and the organizations which have been allotted land by or have leased land from the State to do immediately the following urgent work:

1. The Presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government in cooperation with the General Land Adminitration shall check, inventorize and evaluate the current use of land by various organizations in their localities, and report it to the Prime Minister in September 1996.

If any organization does not have the dossier or measurements to report, it must measure and declare the area of land it is using according to the model form stipulated by the General Land Administration. The land managing agencies shall check and adjust these declaration forms and report it to the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government for submission to the Prime Minister. If the land using organization falsifies the declaration and hinders the checking, the head of the organization must be held responsible before the law.

2. All local organizations which have been allotted land by the State are land lease-holders as stipulated in the Ordinance on the rights and obligations of the local organizations which have been allotted land by or have leased land from the State. Now they must again fill the procedure of leasing land and paying land rent to the State.

The General Land Administration and the Ministry of Finance shall stipulate and give guidance on the procedure of leasing land and paying land use rent.

The Presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall organize and direct the implementation and sign decisions to lease land to various organizations in their localities.

The land leasing organizations must complete the procedure of land leasing before September 30, 1996.

With regard to the cases in which the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government have issued a decision on land use rent, and this rent has been collected and publicly used in balancing the State budget during the period from the promulgation of the 1993 Land Law to the promulgation of the Ordinance on the rights and obligations of the local organizations which have been allotted land by or have leased land from the State (October 14, 1994), they may temporarily be exempted from this procedure of leasing land, but they must make a detailed inventory and report it to the Government. The General Land Administration shall give detailed guidance on this matter.

3. The Presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government, the Ministers, and the Heads of the various branches shall have to direct the organizations under their management to revise the demand of each organization for land use in keeping with its present task and requirement of production and business, and certify the demand of that organization for land use.

a/ Any land belonging to any organization which is not fully used by it must be returned to the State. The Presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government in their capacity shall issue a decision to retrieve it, or report it to the Prime Minister to issue a decision to this effect.

b/ The Presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall decide to retrieve the part of land of those organizations which have leased or assigned it to other organizations or individuals for other uses. In case an organization is using land for the right purpose without infringing on the general plan, the Presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall consider and allow it to fill the procedure of allotting or leasing land in line with the current provisions of law.

c/ The various organizations are strictly banned from allotting land to their officials and employees for building dwelling houses.

From now on, the Presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall have to closely direct the agencies concerned to regularly check the observance of this ban in order to promptly prevent and take firm punitive measures against any organization which deliberately allots land to its officials and employees for building dwelling houses.

With regard to those organizations which have violated the Land Law by transferring houses, land, storages and parking ground, or allotting land to their officials and employees for building dwelling houses, etc., they must be checked and a report must be made of each case in which its violations must be listed and classified and sanctioning measures suggested for submission to the Party Committees and the People’s Councils of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government for decision; the case which is beyond their powers for settlement, it must be reported to the Prime Minister for decision.

d/ If any organization or individual illegally encroaches on public land in violation of the general plan for production and population, a decision must be issued to retrieve it and sanctions be taken in accordance with law.

4. The State Inspector and the General Land Administration in cooperation with the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall organize an experimental check and inspection of key areas in the use of land by a number of administrative and non-business agencies and professional associations which have been censured by public opinion in order to report it to the Prime Minister.

5. The land which has been allotted by the State to various organizations to use for public purposes and for national interests must be strictly managed and economically and efficiently used as planned; if it is encroached upon, the organization concerned must cooperate with the local administration to resolutely clear it for use as planned. The units engaged in building public utility works are strictly prohibited from usurping the part of land set aside for building temporary shelters for living and storing materials and from using it as permanent residential land.

6. The People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall have to direct the elaboration of the general plan and the annual plan for land use and submit it to the Prime Minister for ratification and for use as a basis for the allotment and leasing of land to local organizations as stipulated by the Land Law.

In order to meet the growing social demand for dwelling houses and step by step improve the people’s living conditions, the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government must urgently draw up a general plan for populated areas and ensure a uniform construction of infrastructure facilities, public utility works and social service centers. The building organizations (as stipulated by Decrees No.60-CP and No.61-CP of July 5, 1994 of the Government) shall be assigned to build apartment buildings for sale and for rent, or after building the infrastructure facilities they will hand over the land to the people to build their own dwelling houses according to the general plan.

The general plan for development of new populated areas and urban centers must reserve a proper percentage of land for planting trees to create a suitable urban landscape and environment.

The general plan for development of new industrial zones must reserve land for the relocation of those industrial enterprises with toxic waste matters from urban centers; for the time being, it is necessary to quickly move those enterprises which are too close to populated areas to reduce environmental pollution harmful to the people’s health.

7. The organizations which have been allotted or leased land by the State mentioned in this Directive include State agencies, political, cultural, social, scientific and technical organizations, schools, hospitals, research institutes, State enterprises, enterprises of political and social organizations, defense and security enterprises, stock companies, limited liability companies, collective economic organizations... They have been allotted land not for use in agro-forestry production and business, aquaculture, and salt production.

The Ministers, the Heads of ministerial-level agencies, the Heads of agencies attached to the Government, and the Presidents of the People’s Committees at different levels shall have to direct and organize the strict implementation of this Directive.

Those organizations which have been allotted or leased land by the State shall have to strictly observe this Directive.

The General Land Administration shall have to cooperate with the State Inspectorate and the Ministries and branches concerned to plan, guide, urge and supervise the implementation of this Directive and report the results to the Prime Minister.