Vietnam parliament not to pass long-awaited land law this year

The National Assembly, Vietnam’s highest legislative body, will not pass the draft amended Land Law at the ongoing (sixth) plenary meeting, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said Thursday.

Addressing a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee’s meeting, Hue clarified that the draft law, which has been long expected, would be approved at next meeting of the parliament.

Regarding 26 main contents of the draft law, six are now subject to one option, 14 are subject to two options, one needs more clarification, and five have already been reported to relevant authorities to receive more opinions, said Vu Hong Thanh, head of the National Assembly (NA)’s economic committee.

Hue asked the NA's economic committee and drafting agencies to check and propose best options for “undecided issues.”

For example, on land-related rights of Vietnamese people living abroad, many agencies have reached a consensus that they are the same as those living in Vietnam. This move aims to facilitate more contributions to their motherland from Vietnamese people living abroad, said Hoang Thanh Tung, head of the NA's legal committee.

On the issue of land-use rights for economic organizations with “foreign factors,” Hue asked the economic committee to draft two options because the lawmakers were not on the same page yet.

Other unresolved issues included settlement of land-use rights for socioeconomic projects without the use of the state budget, settlement of land-use rights for housing projects and the formula for calculating land prices.

Vietnam’s current Land Law took effect in July 2014. Since 2019, the law has undergone many draft changes, but the NA has delayed voting on it several times. At the ongoing session, the parliament was set to approve nine draft laws, including the draft Land Law.