Many localities delay approving land use plans for agricultural and forestry companies

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There are many shortcomings in the governance model of agricultural and forestry farms. Internet photo

Those opinions were put forward by agriculture and forestry companies at a seminar on land use management, organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on August 23.

Representatives of corporations and agro-forestry companies have raised opinions about shortcomings in land use management among enterprises. Many localities delay the approval of land use plans and grant land use certificates, affecting production and business activities of companies. The handling of contracted land ensures the rights for the people and businesses in many places, creating land disputes and long-term complaints, as well as problems in royalties due to changes in land policies.

According to the representative of Vietnam Forestry Corporation, after equitization, this unit retained the use of about 43,700 hectares of forest land. The corporation has actively built regulations on forest and land management, inventorying and reviewing the status of retained land to develop a plan for more effective land management and use. However, there are some difficulties in measuring, land-marking and granting land use right certificates, encroaching land acquisition in the process of managing and using forest land of some units.

Similarly, Vietnam Coffee Corporation has 32 agricultural production units, managing 30,110.54 hectares of natural land. Land of these units which have been granted land use right certificates and agricultural production land shall be assigned to each laborer according to the Government's Decree No.168/2016/ND-CP. However, in a few units, there are some workers who did not sign contracts and submit products to the company. Workers arbitrarily switch crops and illegally build houses on agricultural land.

Therefore, the representative of Vietnam Coffee Corporation proposed the Government, ministries and agencies adjust existing legal policies and enact land policies, especially policies on land tax for agricultural enterprises and land policies for ethnic minorities to limit complaints.

Representatives of Vietnam Rubber Industry Group also said that at present, ​​the corporation managed about 370,000 hectares in the country and nearly 150,000 hectares in Laos and Cambodia, of which agricultural land accounts for 90% of the area. The group will hand over about 28,000 ha to the locality.

However, representatives of the Vietnam Rubber Group also proposed the locality to compensate and return to the group investment properties and assets on the land. According to current regulations, the group only received compensation on the land and it’s very low. With this compensation, the companies lose their land and cannot guarantee production capacity as before. It is recommended that localities have compensation policies to ensure that when the companies lose land they can maintain production capacity.

According to a report by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, after reviewing and reorganizing 246 agro-forestry companies, the retained land area is 1,868,538 ha. The area of ​​agricultural and forestry farms handed over to the locality is 463,088 ha, bringing the total area handed over so far to 1,084,653 ha.

Through reviewing and arranging, the areas of retained areas have been identified and the area can create a land fund for the purpose of allocating land to ethnic minority people in the locality without land or lacking land for production.

At the seminar, Mr. Le Thanh Khuyen, General Director of the General Department of Land Administration (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) said effectiveness of managing and using land of forestry farms has not been improved. In some places, there is still a potential risk of land disputes and encroachment. Land resources have not been promoted, the annual budget of the State has not been properly and fully calculated; there are still some companies and agro-forestry companies using land from the state to lease and lend.

Therefore, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment proposed that the Government allocate funds from the central budget for localities to ensure the measurement and land landmarks, drawing maps and making cadastral dossiers, issuing certificates and building land databases for agro-forestry companies and forest management boards, because this is mostly in provinces with budget difficulties.