There should be regulations on creating land funds to allocate to ethnic minorities in difficult circumstances.

Commenting on the Draft Law on Land (amended), Delegate Ngo Trung Thanh said that, through studying the draft Law and comparing it with Resolution 18-NQ/TW and the 2013 Constitution as well as practical requirements, it was found that the provisions of the draft law have not fully institutionalized the content of Resolution 18. Specifically, in terms of subjects, Resolution 18 sets out the goal of fundamentally resolving existing problems and difficulties related to residential land and production land for ethnic minorities in general. However, the draft law only focuses on resolving problems for ethnic minorities in areas with particularly difficult socio -economic conditions, which is narrower than Resolution 18.

Regarding land, Resolution No. 18 requires preferential tax policies, but the draft law does not clearly stipulate this content.

trung-thanh-1687347780672(1).jpg — Delegate Ngo Trung Thanh

Regarding the management and use of agricultural land, Resolution 18 states that “there should be an effective mechanism to prevent people from transferring land after being allocated”. However, in reality, due to the uneven educational level of ethnic minorities, some people have limited knowledge of the law and society or due to difficulties, they are taken advantage of and have their land confiscated, leading to no more land for production and lack of residential land.

Meanwhile, the regulations on this issue, in Clause 1, Article 49 of the draft law are based on the legalization of current regulations but are looser than current regulations. Specifically, in Decree No. 43/2014/ND-CP of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the current Land Law, it is determined that after 10 years, land can only be transferred and accompanied by the condition of having confirmation of no need to use land or having moved out of the residential area. However, in this draft Law, it is stipulated that after 10 years, except in cases where there is confirmation, land allocated to individuals and households can be transferred. That is, if it has not been 10 years but there is confirmation of no need to use land or has moved out of the residential area, the land can be transferred, which is "loose" compared to current regulations, not meeting the requirements of Resolution 18 - NQ/TW".

With the above analysis and the significance and importance of land policy for ethnic minorities, delegates proposed that land policy must be applied to all ethnic minorities lacking production land or residential land as the goal set out in Resolution 18, not just for ethnic minorities in areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions to ensure that no one is left behind.

Second, the land policy for ethnic minorities must be a comprehensive, comprehensive policy with specific provisions on the following contents: It is necessary to stipulate the State's responsibility for land towards ethnic minorities, specific incentives and support for ethnic minorities, and the obligations and responsibilities of ethnic minorities towards the State for allocated land; There must be regulations so that land allocated to ethnic minorities under the support policy is not and cannot be confiscated, in accordance with the requirements of Resolution 18.

It is necessary to study and add the project of creating land fund to arrange production land for ethnic minorities lacking land to the list of projects for land recovery for socio-economic development purposes, for national and public interests.

Accordingly, it is necessary to clearly stipulate that transactions in this case are invalid, and the transferee may even be subject to legal sanctions. It is necessary to stipulate the recovery of land from ineffective farms and forestry farms to hand over to households and ethnic minorities who lack land for production in the locality, to overcome the situation where people lack land, while farms and forestry farms have land but use it ineffectively.

In addition, because localities no longer have enough land funds, the Law needs to regulate the creation of land funds to allocate to ethnic minorities lacking residential land and production land. Therefore, it is recommended to study and add the project of creating land funds to allocate production land to ethnic minorities lacking land to the list of projects for land recovery for the purpose of socio-economic development, for national and public interests.

In addition, it is necessary to have specific regulations for ethnic minorities in compensation, resettlement, and land recovery, such as: ensuring that ethnic minorities still have land and housing suitable for their cultural, spiritual, and customary lives; not moving ethnic minorities to live in apartments; compensating for land or exchanging land so that ethnic minorities still have land for production...

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