Land use planning must limit negative impacts on the environment and climate change.

Proposal to reduce appropriate landfill area

Speaking at the meeting, delegates said that the implementation of the land use plan for the 2011-2020 period has created important resources to promote the country's socio-economic development; at the same time, they agreed on the necessity of approving the National Land Use Plan for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, and the National 5-year Land Use Plan (2021-2025).

However, according to delegate Nguyen Tuan Anh (Long An province), the target for planning land for waste disposal and treatment by 2030 is 18,000 hectares, an increase of 10,000 hectares compared to 2020, and there are still some unreasonable points. Because according to the audit report, the implementation of the target for waste disposal and treatment in the period of 2010-2020 is very low, only 37%; in fact, planning land use for solid waste treatment is very difficult, especially in provinces with small areas such as Bac Ninh, Vinh Phuc, Hung Yen... Besides, some areas with large areas of waste disposal have caused consequences for the environment such as coal-fired thermal power plant ash slag dumps, coal mine waste dumps...

Meanwhile, regarding the country's development orientation for the 2021-2030 period, which is to build a green, circular, environmentally friendly economy and promote science and technology in waste treatment, delegate Nguyen Tuan Anh said that the indicators directly related to the environment need to closely follow this orientation. The government needs to review this indicator in the direction of reducing the area of ​​landfill land, arranging land planning for waste treatment, and planning waste transfer points in urban and rural areas appropriately.

Regarding the land target for high-tech zones planned to 2025, it is about 4.1 thousand hectares, a very small increase (only about 510 hectares compared to 2020), and no increase in the period 2025-2030. Delegate Nguyen Tuan Anh suggested that the Government consider adjusting the larger area for the land target for high-tech zones, meeting the country's development orientation to 2030. The Government needs to direct the review and completion of the land use planning scheme to minimize negative impacts on the environment and climate change," said delegate Nguyen Tuan Anh.

Delegate Nguyen Tuan Anh proposed that the Government direct the early construction and completion of the National Geographic Database and National Topographic Map according to the Law on Surveying and Mapping; in order to provide a database for the construction of a national data system; and to accelerate the management of spatial land use planning data for urban development based on public transport orientation.

In setting out appropriate targets and solutions in land use planning and plans, delegate Nguyen Tuan Anh also proposed focusing on the digital platform factor in state management of land, which will certainly bring many practical benefits to the economy and people, especially when we are preparing for the program of socio-economic recovery and development, safely adapting to the epidemic.

Sharing the same view, delegate Pham Van Thinh (Bac Giang province) said that the application of information technology and digital transformation should be considered a central solution, playing a decisive role in the implementation of planning and land use plans in the coming time. Experience from other countries shows that there are two most important types of data that need to be digitized if we want to digitally transform the country's economy: population data and land data. Digital transformation in land management also contributes to improving the effectiveness of inspection and supervision by management agencies at all levels; the preparation and approval of planning and land use plans for the next period is quick and timely (avoiding delays like this time); at the same time, ensuring the publicity and transparency of planning and land use plans is easy.

Clearly define principles and criteria for allowing conversion of rice-growing land

Proposing that the National Assembly decentralize to the provincial People's Councils the decision on changing the land use purpose for rice fields, special-use forest land, and protective forest land of projects using land whose land use planning and plans have been approved by the Government, delegate Pham Van Thinh (Bac Giang province) said that this is logical because the land use planning and plans for these land locations have been approved by the Government, so when changing the land use purpose, asking for the Prime Minister's opinion is not really reasonable, causing administrative procedures and increasing costs.

In fact, in the past, due to the regulation requiring the Prime Minister's approval, many localities wanting to speed up the process have divided projects of less than 10 hectares of rice fields into smaller ones, leading to fragmented planning of residential areas, urban areas, and non-agricultural production projects, wasting infrastructure and lacking synchronous connections.

Delegate Pham Van Thinh stated: “If the National Assembly approves this decentralization content, the implementation of land use planning and plans in the coming time will be faster and more effective, leading to better disbursement of public investment, better mobilization of social investment resources and will certainly contribute positively to GDP growth of the whole economy. This is also an important step forward in administrative reform. Along with decentralization, it is recommended that the Government individualize the responsibilities of local leaders in land management, combined with strengthening inspection and supervision to ensure the effectiveness of decentralization.”

Regarding the rice land target, delegate Mai Thi Phuong Hoa (Nam Dinh province) said that the reduction in rice land area will lead to many rural workers becoming unemployed and becoming freelance workers. In fact, after the rice land recovery project is completed but abandoned, it is a waste, while people have no land for production; not to mention that some localities still allow the arbitrary conversion of rice land to other purposes.

Therefore, delegate Mai Thi Phuong Hoa proposed to clearly define the principles and criteria for allowing the conversion of rice-growing land, and the areas that need to be converted or kept. “In the long term, to develop the economy, it is necessary to have land for industrial zones, but it is necessary to minimize the conversion of rice-growing land to industrial zone land because it is difficult to ensure that this land can be returned to rice cultivation. For localities with large areas of rice-growing land, the Government needs to summarize the implementation of support policies to come up with more suitable policies and solutions to increase the value of rice,” delegate Phuong Hoa stated.

Considering that some contents of planning and forecasting are not yet close to reality, leading to suspended planning; the implementation of some land policies is still inadequate, giving rise to many petitions, complaints, denunciations, recommendations, and requests from the people, delegate Mai Van Hai (Thanh Hoa) suggested that it is necessary to publicize and make planning transparent for people to access.

Delegate Mai Van Hai proposed that in the 2021-2030 period, it is necessary to consider planning and rationally allocating land types to the provincial level instead of stopping at the regional scale; thereby, localities clearly see their responsibilities in implementing approved land use planning. “In addition, we need to assess and forecast the potential of non-agricultural land, especially the conversion of rice land and other types of land to non-agricultural land, which is still limited. There should be separate criteria for residential land to maximize the potential of this type of land for socio-economic development, avoiding the situation in the recent past where some localities have exploited this land source to build new rural areas,” said delegate Mai Van Hai.

In addition, in the period 2011-2020, the land area planned for industrial parks was over 191 thousand hectares, but only over 90 thousand hectares were implemented. However, in the period 2021-2030, the land area planned for industrial parks is expected to be over 210 thousand hectares. Delegate Mai Van Hai suggested that the consideration and allocation of land types for industrial park planning must be reviewed, re-evaluated, and considered for reasonableness. "If the planning is done but the implementation is not put into practice, it will greatly affect the socio-economic development of the country," said delegate Mai Van Hai.

It is expected that after the discussion session, in the afternoon of the same day, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha will speak to explain and clarify a number of issues raised by National Assembly deputies.

According to VNA