DIRECTIVE No.10/1998/CT-TTg OF FEBRUARY 20, 1998 ON STEPPING UP AND COMPLETING THE ASSIGNMENT OF LAND AND GRANTING OF CERTIFICATES OF THE RIGHT TO USE AGRICULTURAL LAND

While the agricultural land assignment under Decree No. 64-CP of September 27, 1993 of the Government has been so far basically completed nationwide only more than 60% of farmers' households with nearly 65% of the total agricultural land area have been granted the land use right certificates under the provisions of law.

Nevertheless, the agricultural land assignment in many provinces remains prolonged and incomplete and the granting of land use right certificates to farmers' households is slow, thus failing to meet the requirements of land users and affecting the creation of a new driving force for the agricultural and rural development as well as the State management over land.

In order to quickly overcome the above-mentioned problem and basically complete the assignment of land and the granting of agricultural land use right certificates in 1998, the Prime Minister requests the administration at various levels, branches, organizations, households and individuals that are assigned land by the State for agricultural purposes to immediately perform the following tasks:

1. The presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall coordinate with the National Administration of Land, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in directing the branches and levels within the provinces to:

a/ Examine and evaluate the achieved results, clearly determine the volume of work that remain to be done, clearly determine the policies, solutions and plans for organizing simultaneously the assignment of agricultural land and the granting of agricultural land use right certificates on a wide scale so as to complete this task according to the following schedule:

- The provinces in the North Vietnam delta and the Mekong River delta, the plain districts of the midland provinces in North Vietnam, of northern and southern Central Vietnam and eastern South Vietnam must basically complete this task in 1998.

- The mountainous provinces in North Vietnam and the Central Highlands, the mountainous districts of the midland provinces in North Vietnam, northern and southern Central Vietnam and eastern South Vietnam must basically complete this task in 1999.

b/ Encourage farmers' households to swap land among themselves so as to overcome the existing state of land scatteredness and scantiness right in the process of implementing the land assignment plan under Decree No. 64-CP as well as in the process of granting agricultural land use right certificates. The People's Committees at various levels shall have to direct, propagate, mobilize and provide detailed guidance for farmers' households to exchange land among themselves.

c/ Concentrate efforts on directing the branches and levels within the provinces to draw up the zoning and plans for the use of land, first of all clearly determining the demand to use land for the purposes of communications, irrigation, construction of public facilities, to expand rural residential areas and urban centers... which shall serve as the basis for quickly implementing the land assignment and the granting of agricultural land use right certificates.

2. All organizations, households and individuals that have been assigned land by the State or are directly managing and using land for agricultural production, forestry, aquaculture or salt production but have not yet been granted land use right certificates shall have to declare and register their total land areas they are directly using at the commune People's Committees for consideration and granting of land use right certificates according to the declaration and registration plan of each locality.

The provincial People's Committees shall guide and direct the district People's Committees and the commune People's Committees shall have to organize the declaration and registration of the land use right and compile adequate dossiers and submit them to the district People's Committees for approval and granting of land use right certificates to households and individuals in their localities.

The National Administration of Land shall issue uniform and specific regulations and forms for the compilation and management of dossiers and procedures for consideration, approval and granting of land use right certificates applicable in the whole country.

3. The People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall have to calculate and allocate funding for fulfillment of the task of assigning land and granting agricultural land use right certificates according to their plans on the basis of utilizing various resources including direct productive labor in communes, administrative and non-business labor in the branches of the provinces, State budget revenues from the land use right certificate-granting fees according to current regulations and provincial State budget grants.

The Ministry of Finance shall provide uniform guidance on sources and modes of funding for the localities to perform this task.

4. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall have to coordinate with the National Administration of Land in supervising and urging the provinces and cities to step up and complete the assignment of agricultural land according to the requirements of Decree No. 64-CP; organize and guide land-swapping campaigns so as to quickly overcome the existing state of scatteredness and scantiness.

5. To speed up the assignment of land and the granting of agricultural land use right certificate to farmers, the National Administration of Land shall provide detailed guidance for responsible local land administration agencies to, apart from speeding up the tempo of measuring and drawing land administrative maps, systemizing existing documents and data, organizing professional skills training and quickly training specialized personnel from the provincial to grassroots level, exploit and make optimum use of existing documents, data and maps and revise, depending on the specific conditions of each province, the documents, data and maps surveyed in implementation of Directive No. 299-TTg of October 11, 1980 of the Prime Minister; use each locality's available results of measuring and drawing land administrative maps with or without coordinates; draw maps on the site on the basis of the modified aviation photos; use the documents, data and maps as the basis for assigning land to each household during the implementation of the land assignment plan according to Decree No. 64-CP; For localities that do not have the above-mentioned maps and documents the local land administration agencies may organize by themselves the measurement and drawing with the simple method of measuring and sticking marking poles to delineate the boundaries between households' land lots to serve as the basis for the land assignment and granting of land use right certificates (adjustment can be made later when measurement conditions permit).

6. The National Administration of Land shall coordinate with the State Inspectorate, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the concerned ministries and branches in guiding the localities and directly guiding the timely settlement of problems arising in the course of considering, approving and granting land use right certificates such as the settlement of land-related disputes and complaints, handling of violations of the land legislation..., creating conditions for the localities to fulfill the land assignment and granting of land use right certificates.

The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies and agencies attached to the Government and the presidents of the People's Committees at all levels shall have to direct and organize the strict implementation of this Directive.

The National Administration of Land shall assist the Prime Minister in supervising and urging the implementation of this Directive, sum up and report the implementation results in each province to the Prime Minister.

For the Prime Minister

Deputy Prime Minister

NGUYEN CONG TAN