Vietnam’s unused land area at over 1.23 million: MONRE

After more than a year joining cities and provinces to implement land area inventory and mapping of land use status in 2019 following the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 15/CT-TTg, the MONRE on July 22 issued a decision approving and announcing the land inventory results.

Accordingly, Vietnam’s agricultural land covered approximately 28 million hectares by the end of 2019, while the area of non-agricultural land was nearly four million hectares.

Data on land area inventory in 2019 is to be used uniformly throughout the country. The People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities are responsible for directing the publication and provision of the inventory results to organisations and individuals for consistent use in accordance with regulations.

Earlier, on June 17, 2019, then-Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed the issuance of Directive No. 15/CT-TTg on land inventory and the mapping of land use status in 2019.

Accordingly, the leader requested the MONRE, relevant ministries and branches, and the People's Committees of cities and provinces organise the implementation of the aforementioned tasks, with the aim of evaluating the land use reality in administrative units at commune, district and provincial levels, across economic regions and the whole country. The collected data will serve as a foundation for the assessment of land management and use at all levels over the past five years, thus proposing mechanisms, policies and measures to strengthen State management over land and land use efficiency.

Recently, the Government Office sent a document conveying the opinion of Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh, asking the MONRE to take responsibility for the accuracy of the inventory data, and announce the five-year land inventory results in accordance with law.

The Deputy PM also requested the ministry and the chairpersons of the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities uphold their responsibilities in directing the subordinate agencies to strictly observe the provisions of land law while rationally allocating resources between investment and land use in order to ensure effective management of the country’s land resources.