The
Achievements of the Vietnam-Sweden Co-operation Programme on Land
Administration SWEDEN - VIETNAM COOPERATION ON LAND
ADMINISTRATION REFORM IN VIETNAM
Prof. Dr. Sc. DANG Hung Vo, Vietnam and Gösta
PALMKVIST, Sweden
Key words:
SUMMARY
This paper has the purpose to present briefly in the FIG meeting
the current implementation of the land administration system of
Vietnam and the successful cooperation between Vietnam and Sweden in
this area. The authors focus firstly on the history, current status of
land issues and land administration system building. After that, the
strategic developments in the future planning are discussed. The
authors then present the Vietnam-Sweden Cooperation Programme on Land
Administration Reform (CPLAR) with a description of its contents and
results. CPLAR plays the important role in the process of studying
modern methodology, technology solutions, foreign experiences learning
and human resources development. CPLAR also considers analysis of
socio-economic, environmental and gender issues in the land
administration field. The CPLAR's activities have assisted in
development of several useful technical solutions for the General
Department of Land Administration (GDLA).
1. BRIEF INTRODUCTION ON THE HISTORY OF LAND MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM
The first cadastral system in Vietnam was established by the Le
dynasty in 1490. It is a DEED system in service for the nationwide
land administration focusing on the utmost collection of agricultural
tax. Meanwhile Hong Duc Law, the first Vietnamese law, was
promulgated, of which 60 articles were about the land. The second
cadastral system established in Vietnam took 31 years between 1805 and
1836 by the Nguyen dynasty. It is a DEED system also containing 10,044
volumes of cadastral books that covered 18 thousand communes across
the country. Meanwhile Gia Long Law, the second Vietnamese law, was
promulgated, of which 14 articles were to regulate the civil and
administrative relation on housing, land and rice tax.
On their first arrival to Vietnam in the mid-19th century, the
French, without any delay, started making cadastral maps with
coordinates and setting up new cadastral books so as to strengthen
their agricultural tax collection in rural areas and further control
markets of real property in urban areas. It is the third cadastral
system established in Vietnam. The DEED system was applied for rural
land whereas the TITLE system was applied for urban land.
Soon after the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (former name of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam) was founded, Vietnam suffered from wars
for 30 years between 1945 and 1975. Land administration was ignored in
the following 1975 - 1986 period because of the centralised planning
economy model. In the first half of 80's of the last century,
Vietnam's economy had very low productivity in agriculture, which
caused lack of food for social needs. The economic solution to this
problem was based on the allocation of agriculture land to individuals
and households. This policy has brought Vietnam into the position as
one of the three leading countries of rice export in the world.
In 1986 the State of Vietnam decided to innovate its economic
system under the market economy model managed by the State. Since
then, land administration has been regarded significant to secure
political stability, social justice and economic development. The
Vietnamese land law was first approved by the National Assembly in
1988. After having been carried out for 5 years, some articles proved
to be not encouraging enough for development of the market economy. A
revised land law was therefore promulgated and approved by the
National Assembly in 1993, called the 1993 Land Law.
In early 1994 Vietnam Government decided to establish the General
Department of Land Administration (GDLA) by merging and reorganizing
two state bodies; General Department of Land Management and National
Department of Surveying and Mapping. The land administration system of
Vietnam is a nationwide four-level system including the GDLA at the
central level belonging to the Government, Department of Land
Administration (DLA) at provincial level belonging to People's
Committee of Province, Bureau of Land Administration (BLA) at district
level belonging to People's Committee of District, and one/two Land
Officers in each commune. The land administration bodies are
responsible for the land management and survey - mapping. The tasks
are as follows:
- Preparation of land legislation and land policies to submit to
Authorized State Bodies for consideration and approval;
- Implementation of cadastral system including land register,
cadastral mapping, cadastral documentation, land tenure
certificate issuance, and land record system update;
- Land investigation and inventory for land classification, land
assessment, and land valuation;
- Land statistics and current land use mapping;
- Long term and annual land use planning;
- Land inspection;
- Solving land disputes;
- Reference geodetic system definition, coordinates and levelling
control network construction;
- Aerial-satellite imagery management;
- Hydrographic survey;
- Topographic map and base map systems establishment for inland
and seabed;
- National Geo-database and Land-database management.
Based on the technical assistance founded by UNDP and AUSAID,
during 1991 - 1994 Vietnam land administration carried out the
Feasibility Study (F/S) on establishment of a modern land management
system for Vietnam. The F/S results have supplied reasonable
justifications for the long-term planning on development strategies.
The World Bank, in the period 1994 - 1997, has had several discussions
with GDLA on utilization of WB soft loans for the total implementation
of modern land management in Vietnam. The proposed budget in this F/S
was USD 360 million. After consideration Vietnam's Government decided
to use the state budget for implementation of the land administration
system.
In general, the construction of a modern land administration system
in Vietnam would be called the land administration reform. A total
solution of this process should be concerned in the legal,
technological, economical, and social aspects. In 1995, the Sweden
International Development Agency (SIDA) intended to support GDLA with
a technical assistance project for the methodology and technology
study. Two years later, Sweden and Vietnam governments signed the
specific agreement on the programme named "Vietnam-Sweden
Cooperation Programme on Land Administration Reform - CPLAR" for
10 years. CPLAR is being carried out in 2 phases in which the first
phase is from 1997 to 2001 and the second phase from 2002 to 2007. The
first phase will be completed at the end of 2001 with the budget SEK
88 million, in which SEK 65 million from Swedish contribution and SEK
23 million from Vietnamese contribution in kind.
The authors of this paper would like to present the land
administration reform in Vietnam which is supported by the results of
CPLAR.
2. CONTENTS OF LAND ADMINISTRATION REFORM IN VIETNAM
Issues related to renovation of the land administration system in
Vietnam are introduced in this part. The main contents of the land
administration reform are as follows:
1. Complete the land legislation and land policy system based on
political stability, social justice and economic development;
effectively strengthen to the land inspection system; well settle land
disputes:
According to Vietnam Constitution land is the property of the
entire people, which is allocated or leased by the State to
organizations, households or individuals for long-term use. Depending
on their status, land users are fully or partly granted the rights of
land exchange, transfer, inheritance, mortgage, lease and investment
into joint-venture. Rural land is used for cultivation, development of
the rural socio-economy and food security, so that the necessary land
for afforestation must be secured and the ecological environment
protected. Besides, the State appropriately provides land for the
national industrialization and modernization, including the
construction of infrastructure, centralized industrial zones and
urbanization in dealing with resettlement.
The first land law was approved by the National Assembly in 1988,
and after that the land law has been renewed or revised every 5 years.
The second land law was promulgated in 1993, the revised land law in
1998, and the third land law may be created in 2002. During the period
2003 - 2008 GDLA will have full conditions for preparation of the Land
Code to submit to National Assembly for approval.
2. Accomplish the establishment of initial cadasral documents
consisting of land allocation, land registration, cadastral maps,
cadastral books, and land tenure certificates (LTC) for 19 million ha
of currently used land; facilitate the administrative procedures of
land user rights performance and cadastral documents update based on
organization of land title office:
Initiation of cadastral documents in Vietnam that started in 1990
was subject to the title system. LTCs were issued to land users on the
basis of unified system of cadastral maps and cadastral books. There
are currently around 13 million land users, of whom 10.5 million in
rural areas and 2.5 million in urban areas, for about 100 million land
parcels in Vietnam. LTCs will be issued until the year 2005, by then
the land amalgamation will reduce the number of parcels and the LTC
will step-by-step be replaced by a parcel based system. It is
impossible to complete all the new cadastral maps by the year 2000 so
all the old ones would remain suitable for the present situation.
Initial registration of land for 13 million land users is considered a
huge task to tackle.
The current situation and schedule for completion of the initial
cadastral documents are presented in the following table:
During the time for implementetion of the initial cadastral
documents, GDLA is studying the land title office system which will
simplify administrative procedures in the land administration system.
3. Carry out land investigation, land survey, land statistics,
land use mapping to form the basic document for short-term and
long-term land use planning:
Pursuant to the Vietnamese land law, the National Assembly approves
the long-term land use planning once it is suitable for the nationwide
planning of socio-economic development. The Government will annually
approve land use plans submitted by provinces or by economic sectors.
In current time, the land administration organizations do not yet
firmly grasp all occurrences in the land use process. From that reason
all land use planning does not get legal effectiveness in the
administrative system, and does not support implementation of
socio-economic development planning.
GDLA has now to renovate the procedures of land use planning on the
basis of methodology studies and practical testing. A reasonable
planning of land use should have the systematic characteristics
guaranteeing the unification of economical sectors planning with
administrative localities planning. The long term land use planning
should be in conformity with the annual land use plan, which
constructs favorable conditions to secure the land allocation, land
lease and land recovery. The administrative procedures of managerial
system must be streamlined over the transferring process of land use.
4. Establish the system for land classification, land
assessment, and land valuation to upgrade the land taxation system and
to form the legal frame for real estate market:
The land valuation is a new task of land administration system in
Vietnam which is the economic tool playing an important role in land
management. The land valuation system gradually supports the real
estate market, correctly defines land tax, land compensation, land
mortgage, from that it is possible to speed up the infrastructure
construction of industrialization and increase the state revenue made
from land resources.
GDLA is concentrated now on the studies on land valuation
methodology and experiences. Some methods of valuation have been
tested already for urban and industrial land. The legal frame and
organizational system of land valuation have also been prepared and
will be submitted to Government in the near future.
5. Modernize gradually the land administration system oriented
to information technology based on establishment of the National Land
Information System (NLIS):
From 1997 all the cadastral documents, including cadastral maps,
are made by digital technology. That means up to now about 60% of new
cadastral documents were captured and archived already in computers
(40% of them are still on paper). In present time GDLA is focused on
establishment of the National Land Information System (NLIS). It is
most important technical infrastructure for modernization of the land
administration system to facilitate and also to simplify all the
administrative procedures. Besides, NLIS has the function for
supplying the land information such as land statistics, current land
use maps, land use planning, etc. and the information related to the
natural, economic, social and legal conditions on each land parcel to
meet the civil needs.
In 1999 GDLA submitted the Feasibility Study on construction of the
National Geo-database and Land-database, which was approved by the IT
State Committee. This Database is organized as a distributed database
system, in which each provincial DLA has an own land-database
including all the cadastral documents of this province and GDLA has
two component database, first one is the Geographic Database and
second one is the Macro Land Database. All the component databases are
connected by wide area network (WAN).
From 1999 to 2001 GDLA manages several projects to prepare the
nationwide implementation of the National Geo/Land Database:
- Define data standards and data standardization;
- Design database structure and networking;
- Pilot study on selection of technological solutions such as
client/server and remote access for geo-data on WAN, data security
and safety, map browser in intranet and Internet, etc.
- Link the National LIS to the other national database systems
such as the banking network, administrative network, investment
and planning network, etc.
- Pilot study on organization of provincial land database.
According to the GDLA's planning the National Geo-database,
National Land-database, and NLIS will be completed in 2010.
3. VIETNAM-SWEDEN COOPERATION PROGRAMME ON LAND ADMINISTRATION
REFORM IN VIETNAM - CPLAR
In 1997 the Sweden and Vietnam Governments signed the specific
agreement on setting up the Vietnam-Sweden Cooperation Programme on
Land Administration Reform in Vietnam (CPLAR) for 10 years, in which
the first phase is implemented in the period 1997 - 2001 with SEK 65
million from Swedish contribution in cash and SEK 23 million from
Vietnamese contribution in kind. The second phase will be considered
by the two sides later in 2001.
The first phase of CPLAR includes 6 projects: project 1 - Land
Legislation, project 2 - Cadastral Mapping, project 3 - Land Use
Mapping & Planning, project 4 has 2 components: project 4.1 - Land
Valuation and project 4.2 - Land Registration, project 5 - Land
Information System, project 6 - Programme Management. The contents and
results of each project will be described as follows:
1. Project 1 - Land Legislation:
The main objectives are: (1) - methodology study on land
legislation system to propose revisions to the current land law of
Vietnam, (2) - study on formulation of the legal frame for the real
estate market in Vietnam, (3) - study on proposals of land policies
for the ethnic minorities in Vietnam.
The results of this project in 1997 have played the important roles
in preparation of the revised land law, which was promulgated in 1998
by the National Assembly. During the period 1998 - 2000, this project
has been focused on the legal frame for real estate market and the
land policies for ethnic minorities.
2. Project 2 - Cadastral mapping:
Cadastral map system of Vietnam has been defined by GDLA as
follows:
- Cadastral maps are set up in the national unified coordinate
system on the basis of the basic cadastral control network
covering all the country constructed by GPS technology.
- Cadastral maps scales are: 1/200 for Hanoi, 1/500 for other
cities, 1/1,000 for rural residential land, 1/2,000 for
agricultural land in the North and Central, 1/5,000 for
agricultural land in the South, and 1/10,000 - 1/25,000 for forest
land.
- Making use of all kinds of old cadastral maps suitable for
current land use situation should be encouraged. Newly established
cadastral maps must be made in digital form based on application
of all kinds of modern or conventional survey technologies.
The main objectives of the project 2 are: (1) - pilot study on
cadastral survey methods by total station, RTK GPS, and orthophoto
mapping, (2) - proposal on digital cadastral map standards, (3) -
strengthening technological capacities for survey and mapping works at
provincial level.
Project 2 has concl;uded on selection of suitable cadastral survey
methods for each category of land. Digital cadastral map standards
have been proposed to GDLA for approval.
3. Project 3 - Land use mapping and land use planning:
It is extremely difficult for the land administration sector,
relevant economic sectors as well as local authorities to set up long
term land use planning and annual land use plans in the condition that
initial land records have not yet been established. However, a
nationwide long term land use planning up to 2010 has been set up by
GDLA, and already been submitted to the Government. Annual land use
plans for every province and economic sector are approved by the
Government. However, the approved land use planning as well as annual
land use plans are not fully implemented in the social life.
The main objectives of project 3 are: (1) - application of digital
technology for land use mapping, (2) - methodology study on land use
planning in which the suitability between economical sectors and
localities must be considered, (3) - proposal on a new technical
procedure of land use planning.
Up to 2000, project 3 has carried out a pilot study on the new
technical procedures of land use planning at provincial, district and
communal levels in Ha Nam province. Land use mapping by digital
technology has been tested with utilization of the aerial-satellite
images and current cadastral maps.
4. Project 4.1: Land valuation
Land valuation is the new concept in the land administration system
of Vietnam. Up to now Vietnam has not any system of valuation offices,
then land price is defined on the basis of the government land price
frame. The difference between the government price and the market
price is quite big.
The main objectives of project 4.1 are: (1) - methodology study on
land valuation, (2) - testing and choosing suitable methods on land
valuation in Vietnam, (3) - proposal on establishment of the land
valuation office system.
Project 4.1 has considered several methods for land valuation,
after that some of them have been applied in pilot study area. The
methods proposed by the project were accepted for use in several
provinces. Project 4.1 has also proposed a plan on organization of the
land valuation offices in Vietnam. This plan will be the basic
document for submission to the Government for consideration.
5. Project 4.2 - Land registration:
Land registration and LTC's issuance are the main tasks in the
period of the initial cadastral documents implementation. Since 1988,
this work started with the unified technical instructions. Up to now
the land registration and LTC's issuance are implemented rather
smoothly, but there is a problem with the complicated administrative
procedures.
The main objective of this project is to simplify the present
administrative procedures oriented to organizing a land title offices
network. The project has made the methodology studies and practical
tests on land title office system in some provinces.
6. Project 5: Land information system
Land information system is the goal of the modernization process of
land administration. Project 5 has the objectives: (1) - study on the
public demands on the land information system, (2) - Land-database and
computer network design, (3) - tests on land data processing softwares
and data management softwares.
Project 5 has carried out several pilot studies on formulation of
the rational LIS model for provincial level. These pilot studies are
concentrated on the following topics:
- Selection of procedure for the capture of cadastral documents
including cadastral maps to the Land-database;
- Proposal on an acceptable land database model concerning the
structure, networking for distributed form, data updating
procedure;
- LIS software's tests to make the technical guidelines on
application of data processing software, data management software,
software customization and development for provincial IT staff;
- Land data supplying by intranets and the Internet.
The provincial LIS model proposed by Project 5 has been approved by
GDLA for application throughout the land administration area.
7. Project 6: Programme management
The main task of Project 6 is coordination of activities for the
whole programme, including planning and financial management, annual
reporting to SIDA and GDLA. Besides, Project 6 has also some important
specific tasks as follows:
- Study on human resources development model for the land
administration sector of Vietnam;
- Modernization of management system oriented to the IT
technology;
- Analysis of the social-economic-environmental impacts on land
issues;
- Women's access to land (gender issue);
- Setting up special working groups to facilitate the cooperative
activities between the projects in CPLAR and with other related
projects in Vietnam;
- Making feasibility study on the possible utilization of the
foreign soft loans to speed up implementation of the land
administration works.
The consultancy organization for CPLAR has been selected as
Swedesurvey, which was winner in the international bid for
implementation. The excellent cooperation between SIDA and GDLA,
Swedesurvey and Vietnamese partners are the most important part
forming the CPLAR's success.
In 2001 SIDA and GDLA will start preparation of the second phase of
CPLAR for the period 2002 - 2007.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Development of land administration in Vietnam is regarded by
Government as of high priority in the process of industrialization and
modernization of the country. The target of Vietnam is to become an
industrialized country before 2020. Turning an agricultural developing
country into an industrialized one is an extremely heavy task.
Development of the 4 input power resources of labour, land, finance
and technology is particularly significant to the national
socio-economic development. In the meantime, issues of land related to
social justice, food security, environmental protection and political
stability must be well solved.
The completion and modernization of the land administration system
of Vietnam must be concentrated in the next 10 years. The CPLAR's
activities are giving the good methodologies, technology solutions,
and management experiences to the land administration of Vietnam at
central and local levels. The Vietnam - Sweden cooperation in the land
administration area brings the successful results to assist GDLA in
the development.
CONTACT
Dr. Sc. DANG Hung Vo
General Department of Land Administration
Secretary-General of the Association of Geodesy, Cartography and
Remote Sensing
73 Nguyen Chi Thanh Str.
Dong Da District
Hanoi
VIETNAM
Tel. + 84 4 8344 066
Fax + 84 4 8352 191
Email: vo.gdla@hn.vnn.vn
Gösta Palmkvist
CPLAR Chief Technical Advisor
Swedesurvey AB
SE-801 82 Gävle
SWEDEN
Tel. + 46 26 633 850
Fax + 46 26 613 277
E-mail: gosta.palmkvist@swedesurvey.se
14 April 2001
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