Quang Ninh puts the breaks on land sales

The Van Don Economic Zone in the northern province of Quang Ninh.-VNA/VNS Photo Trong Dat

Secretary of the Quang Ninh Province Party Committee and chairman of the provincial People’s Council Nguyen Van Doc made this request during the working session with Van Don District on Thursday on the implementation of land management solutions, aimed at preventing land speculation leading to drastic price increases.

Van Don District is in the pending approval phase of its quest to become a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). As investors and the Government look towards its future SEZ status, the district has received a large number of major projects with investment from the State, causing land violations and spiking land prices in this region.

According to the report of the Van Don District People’s Committee, from the beginning of this year, the district has completed more than 1,000 transfers of land use rights, mainly in Ha Long, Dong Xa, Doan Ket va Dai Xuyen communes. Surveys showed that the prices of land traded rose five to 10 times, depending on the area, as people anticipate the bright economic future of the area.

The district has strengthened the inspection and handling of violations and punished officials involved. However, some units have paid little attention to the management of land, causing some cases of illegal land transfer, construction and encroachment.

To deal with this issue, the district’s authority has implemented the inspection and review of land; strictly forbid the change of land use purpose without permission; controlled the transfer of agricultural and forest land; suspended the separation of residential land and changed the purpose of agricultural land use to non-agricultural land and temporarily halted the agreements on location and tasks for planning new projects in Van Don Economic Zone.

Doc said that the province has issued many guiding documents, prohibiting land encroachment, land transactions and conversion for the purpose of profiteering and land speculation leading to higher prices.

In the coming time, Quang Ninh Province will continue to strengthen the inspection of large projects. Therefore, Van Don District in particular and other localities in the province in general must strictly manage the staff at the village and commune level in the implementation of authentication and review the illegal encroachment and improper conversion of land use.

Officials are also asked to review the old projects, and if a violation is discovered, the local authority must make immediate adjustments and recall land where investment projects have not yet materialised, leaving the land sitting empty.

While waiting for the completion of the law, Quang Ninh Province will temporarily stop the conversion of land use purposes; suspend the allocation of land to organisations and projects and pause land transfer in Van Don District. Regarding special cases, the district must report to the province for consideration and decision-making, Doc added.

Van Don currently has many opportunities to develop and become a special economic zone with outstanding mechanisms and policies, attracting large investors.

This month, the National Assembly will pass the Law on Special Administrative Economic Zones. Once the Law is released, the general socio-economic planning and construction of Van Don economic zone will be adjusted to fit its status as a special administrative-economic zone.

Van Don will be one of the first three special administrative-economic zones in Viet Nam. The others are Bac Van Phong in central Khanh Hoa Province and Phu Quoc in southern Kien Giang Province.