National Assembly Chairman Vương Đình Huệ (centre) chairs the session. — VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

HÀ NỘI — The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee discussed the draft amended Law on Land as it continued the legal symposium on Thursday.

As a very important and difficult law project, drafting agencies are preparing for the amended law and the NA Standing Committee, the NA Chairman and deputy chairmen have organised many working sessions to ensure the best preparations.

The law compiling is aimed at perfecting policies on land in line with the development of a socialist-oriented market economy, resolving the overlapping and inconsistencies in policies and laws related to land, and solving problems arising from land use and management.

The other purpose is to strengthen land management, ensure harmonisation of rights and interests of the State, land users, and investors as well as develop a transparent and pure real estate market.

The draft consists of 16 chapters, 240 articles, of which 48 articles remain unchanged while156 articles are amended and supplemented. It is added 36 new articles and abolished eight.

Presenting the inspection report, the Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Economic Affairs Vũ Hồng Thanh said that the committee endorsed a comprehensive amendment of the Law on Land.

The committee suggested that in the drafting process, it is necessary to ensure the compatibility between the amended Law on Land and other concerned laws.

The drafting committee should further assess the compatibility of the draft law with relevant international treaties where Việt Nam is a member.

Speaking at the session, NA Chairman Vương Đình Huệ said that the amended Law on Land project was the central task of law-making work in this term.

The development process and the final result of this law project is the most vivid example to evaluate the law-making capacity of the Government agencies, the NA and relevant agencies.

Appreciating the early preparation efforts of the drafting agency and the agencies involved in the law development, Chairman Huệ noted that it must be discussed thoroughly from the first session and closely follow the Party's guidelines, especially Resolution 18-NQ/TW.

The law must ensure consistency while inheriting the stable provisions of the land law over different periods, which have been proven to be correct in practice and assessed correctly by the Party Central Committee.

Huệ stressed that the drafting agency while amending and supplementing regulations to overcome problems and inadequacies in practice, must ensure the overall, long-term strategy and absolutely avoid legalising current violations.

The drafting agency needs to carefully evaluate to balance national interests, legitimate rights and interests of individuals, enterprises and the people.

Chairwoman of the NA’s Committee for Judicial Affairs Lê Thị Nga highly appreciated the law project preparation, especially the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as the drafting agency.

She also appreciated the preliminary inspection report of the NA’s Committee for Economic Affairs.

Agreeing with the need to amend the land law, Nga stated that this was an issue expected by the people and society.

Nga suggested reviewing ways for handling cases of differences between the land law and other laws, determining the order priorities and how to apply the law to ensure the consistency of the legal system.

Confirming that land withdrawal was an important regulation in the Law on Land, Nga said that it was necessary to strictly regulate this content, adding that regulations on conditions, standards and criteria for land withdrawal by the State for socio-economic development for the national interest and public interest based on the Resolution 18-NQ/TW must be added.

It was needed to carefully review the cases of land withdrawal to avoid abuse in practice.

She also suggested reconsidering the regulations for urban and commercial housing projects.

In this case, self-agreement between people and businesses must be applied following Resolution 18-NQ/TW. — VNS