Illustration photo: TAN DAT
Therefore, issuing electronic copies of land ownership certificates is both a goal and a significant change in management methods aimed at ensuring transparency and better serving the people.
This is also the core content that the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Resource and Environmental Economics proposed to the Prime Minister and relevant ministries regarding the digitization of land use right certificates (land use rights, ownership of other assets attached to land), which has received much public attention.
Electronic ledger: transparent and cost-effective.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Resource and Environmental Economics, the digital transformation of land ownership certificates is seen as a concrete step in implementing Resolution 57 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in the development of science, technology, innovation, and national digital transformation.
Dr. Pham Viet Thuan, director of this institute, stated that currently millions of land ownership certificates are issued on paper over various periods. Land registration procedures for citizens are being carried out manually, directly at district land registration offices with internally stored data, lacking comprehensive data exchange.
To complete the procedures, people may have to wait for weeks to a month and sometimes have to make multiple trips. This not only causes financial losses, wasted travel time, and long waits for citizens, but also creates difficulties for administrative agencies in processing documents and managing centrally.
Therefore, digital transformation in the land sector is an inevitable trend that cannot be delayed. To meet the comprehensive digital transformation requirements in accordance with the Politburo 's resolution, the natural resources sector needs to convert all land ownership certificates to electronic certificates in the immediate future.
The goal of this transformation is to create transparency, fairness, and convenience. Citizens will be able to process and track their applications electronically and will have their procedures processed within minutes or the same day (depending on the procedure) instead of having to wait for many days as is currently the case.
Furthermore, this centralized and interconnected data source will facilitate state management and serve the management of planning, construction, and real estate tax collection during land transfer, or even prevent the falsification of land use right certificates. This is also in accordance with the provisions of the Land Law.
Hanoi residents queue up to complete land and property registration procedures - Photo: Q.THẾ
How is an electronic land ownership certificate issued?
Lawyer Bui Quoc Tuan (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association) believes that the issuance of electronic land use certificates is entirely legally justified as it is clearly stipulated in the 2024 Land Law and its guiding documents.
Specifically, the 2024 Land Law stipulates the national land information system, including a national land database built to serve state land management, administrative reform, and digital transformation in the land sector; connecting and sharing data with national databases and databases of ministries, sectors, and localities to create a foundation for the development of e-government, towards a digital government, digital economy, and digital society.
The Land Law stipulates that online public services related to land are provided to organizations and individuals via the internet. Electronic transactions concerning land are conducted using electronic means. Decree 101/2024 also provides guidance on issuing land ownership certificates electronically for initial issuance and registration of changes.
"Currently, the land ownership certificate template includes a QR code containing relevant information to facilitate access and verification of land and property details, which is one of the means towards issuing electronic land ownership certificates. When the national land information system is completed, the electronic land ownership certificate will simply be an application, one of the results of digitizing land data."
Similarly, when the time is right, paper household registration books will be replaced by electronic household registration books with a digital population management method," lawyer Tuan said.
Regarding the issuance of electronic land ownership certificates, Mr. Thuan stated that it involves identifying each plot of land and each map sheet, then integrating them into the citizen identification number of the owner nationwide to manage and establish ownership rights and issue electronic certificates (according to the current land ownership certificate template) in the digital space, on a platform of artificial intelligence (AI) to manage and store all information about national resources.
When converting to an electronic citizen identification card, individuals whose information has been integrated into their citizen identification card can view and manage it themselves. When necessary, citizens can print it out themselves or have the ward/commune public administration center print it out with government confirmation, and they can print as many copies as they want.
In cases where real estate is transacted, mortgaged, etc., the transaction, mortgage, and registration of changes will be confirmed by a notary office or the local administrative center of the ward or commune. The information will also be displayed in the electronic register and stored in the digital space.
Graphics: TAN DAT
Pilot program, awaiting system-wide standardization.
Associate Professor Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh, an economic expert, believes that land management activities have developed strongly in recent years, from planning to data on individual land parcels and transaction changes, especially in urban areas. Therefore, integrating it with citizen identification cards would be very convenient.
Citizens and businesses will find it much quicker to obtain or check land ownership certificates, reducing costs, administrative procedures, and travel time compared to before.
However, areas with incomplete data or remote regions with large ethnic minority populations require thorough research. "If implemented on a large scale without practical application, it will easily fail. Careful consideration is needed when implementing important policies that affect a large number of people," Mr. Thinh said.
Sharing the same view, Dr. Le Dang Doanh - former director of the Central Institute for Economic Management Research - said that digitalization in land management is a general trend of digital economic development and e-government, but how to ensure security and safety for citizens... are perhaps the big questions.
"If citizens use their national identity cards for transactions and services such as restaurants and hotels, and their information is unfortunately leaked, many complications and consequences will arise, and they may fall victim to fraud later on."
"To achieve nationwide success, a pilot program should be conducted in a specific area. Based on this, the advantages and disadvantages should be considered, and lessons learned should be used to refine the State's legal regulations to close loopholes, especially in the area of security, because land ownership certificates are assets," Mr. Doanh said.
Professor Dang Hung Vo, a resource management expert, believes that before implementing electronic land ownership certificates, land data must be properly managed. He argues that for digitalization to be successful, a very robust, reliable, and complete management infrastructure is necessary, free from errors and already fully digitized.
"We must actively implement digital transformation in land management, to the point of ensuring there are no errors, because it is the foundation for creating electronic land ownership certificates," Mr. Vo analyzed.
Officials check land ownership certificates on the electronic one-stop system for land record management at a district People's Committee in Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: TU TRUNG
There are currently over 41 million land ownership certificates (red and pink certificates).
To date, more than 41 million land and house ownership certificates have been issued nationwide. Over time, the color of the certificate (red, pink) and the names of the certificates have changed. Specifically:
* Before July 2014, there were "Land Use Right Certificates" (red book, issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) and "House Ownership and Land Use Right Certificates" (pink book, issued by the Ministry of Construction).
* From July 2014, the standardized form of the certificate is "Certificate of Land Use Rights, Ownership of Houses and Other Assets Attached to Land," with a pink cover.
* From August 2024, when the current Land Law comes into effect, the unified certificate will be called "Certificate of Land Use Rights and Ownership of Assets Attached to Land," with a lotus pink cover and bronze drum pattern. The certificate will consist of two pages instead of four as before, and will include a QR code.
Mr. MAI VAN PHAN (Deputy Director of the Land Management Department - Ministry of Agriculture and Environment):
The Ministry is researching the possibility of developing electronic land ownership certificates.
Regarding the application of land data to issue electronic certificates of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to land, the ministry has issued directives and is currently implementing them.
Currently, the ministry has to deal with tens of millions of outstanding issued certificates, so it is coordinating with the Ministry of Public Security to standardize and digitize all issued certificates and integrate them into a database.
Simultaneously, the digitization of land certificates has also been institutionalized by the Ministry into the 2024 Land Law and its guiding documents.
In addition, to implement the issuance of electronic certificates, the Ministry also assigned a unit to research electronic certificates. This unit deployed a research group right when the 2024 Land Law was submitted to the National Assembly. Currently, the group is researching replacing the paper certificate format with a new paper form.
Dr. Ninh Thi Hien (Head of Ninh Thi Hien Notary Office):
Convenient for management and serving the public.
The law clearly defines "original document" and "authentic paper document".
Based on experience in other countries, the electronic land ownership certificate is the original document, issued and managed by a state agency.
The state retains the original document instead of giving it to the people (the landowners), only providing a certified copy (commonly referred to as the original) so that people can prove their right to use and own the land.
Similarly, currently the State retains the original birth and death certificates and only issues copies to citizens.
In countries that have adopted electronic land title registration, the State typically provides information to citizens for transactions through notary offices. The network of notary offices (providing public services) is authorized to access the original data from the electronic land title registration, verify real estate information, and certify transactions for individuals and businesses.
"Managing property ownership using electronic land title certificates will bring many advantages to citizens and businesses. It will prevent forgery and theft of land title certificates, ensure transparency of property information, facilitate verification, make transactions more convenient, and save on printing and storage costs," Ms. Hien analyzed.
Dong Nai is getting closer to its goal of issuing electronic land ownership certificates.
Based on land digitization, for nearly 10 years, Dong Nai has implemented many "non-geographical" procedures related to land and housing and is getting closer to the goal of issuing electronic land ownership certificates.
Currently, people in Dong Nai can carry out "non-geographical" administrative procedures related to land and housing, such as viewing planning information, surveying current conditions, registering mortgages (registering secured transactions), and transferring land use rights...
For example, to carry out procedures for mortgaging land use rights or buying and selling real estate, the parties involved only need to go to the one-stop service center in any district, Bien Hoa City, or provincial public administrative center, whichever is closest and most convenient, regardless of administrative boundaries.
The relevant processing procedures are circulated electronically between government agencies.
To achieve this, since 2006, the province has built a digital database of more than 1.6 million land parcels throughout the province on the DONGNAI.LIS application. From there, people can easily install it on their smartphones to look up maps, planning information, legal information of land parcels, etc.
By the end of 2024, Dong Nai province had coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security to streamline administrative procedures after digitizing land data in the areas of residence registration and land management within the province.
According to the Dong Nai Department of Agriculture and Environment, to date, the number of people (management officials) accessing and utilizing information on the DONGNAI.LIS application is 1,300; the number of people using the application on mobile devices is over 470,000.
The average monthly processing rate for land ownership certificate applications and updates on changes in land use information is nearly 29,250 applications (data from January 1st to April 30th, 2025).
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/so-hong-dien-tu-bao-gio-20250531085215448.htm
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