Building a database on land: Standardizing information, increasing management efficiency

After more than 4 years of implementation, up to now, the project “Strengthening land management and building a database on land (database) in Lang Son city and 4 districts of Cao Loc, Binh Gia, Loc Binh and Trang Dinh” (VILG project) has completed many components, initially gone into operation, contributing to standardizing information, improving the efficiency of State management of land in the area.

The feasibility study report of VILG project was approved by the Provincial People’s Committee in Decision No. 1585 on September 9, 2016, and it was applied to Lang Son city and 4 districts including Cao Loc, Loc Binh, Binh Gia, and Trang Dinh. However, due to inability to meet the conditions, Trang Dinh district withdrew from the project. By 2019, the Provincial People’s Committee issued a Decision approving the technical design – cost estimate of the project; the implementation construction period in 2 years (2019 – 2021) including the construction, completion, operation and exploitation of the land database to serve the State management of land in the province.

The official of the Provincial Land Registry Office uses land database to carry out administrative procedures for people

Mr. Ta Quoc Vinh, Deputy Director of the Provincial Land Registry Office said: “By mid-March 2023, the construction units of the project have completed building the land database of 64/70 communes, wards and towns (reaching 91.4%); 6/8 communes and wards in Lang Son city are in the process. Specifically, there has been a cadastral database of over 1 million land plots and a statistical and inventory database of 10,500 land plots in 3 districts and Lang Son city integrated into the land database system. Additionally, the project construction units (Vietnam Natural Resources and Environment One Member Limited Company, Binh Minh Informatics and Geodetic Technology Joint Stock Company, Ha Thanh Company Limited – Hanoi City) have completed the connection, interconnection and data sharing of 55/64 communes, wards and towns with the LGSP interconnection axis of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) to share the province’s land data with the national database on population.”

In addition, the construction units also completed most of the project’s component databases. Up to now, land planning and use database of 62/70 communes and towns have been integrated; land price database of 3 districts have been integrated Particularly in Lang Son city, construction units are actively implementing and building.

Mr. Ma Van Duc, Deputy Head of Natural Resources and Environment Division of Binh Gia District, said: “Since 2019, the project to build a land database has been implemented in the district. By mid-March 2023, the project construction units have built and completed the land database system in the area. In particular, the cadastral database of 227,090 land plots has been completed and used; the development of the land price database of 572 land plots has been completed; the statistical and inventory database of 19 communes and towns have been built and the database of land use planning in the district has been completed. Currently, the land database system has been put into operation and used, thereby contributing to facilitating the State management, speeding up the settlement of administrative procedures related to the land for organizations, individuals in the district.”

Similar to Binh Gia district, in Loc Binh district, the implementation of the project has also been smooth. In the district, the cadastral database of 445,316 land plots has been completed, (that of 37,772 land plots has been newly built, that of 407,544 plots has been converted and standardized); the land price database of 5,150 land plots has been built; the statistical and inventory database of 21 communes and towns has been built and the database of the district’s land use and planning has been completed. Thanks to looking up information and data on the land database system, the settlement of administrative procedures for people is faster and more convenient.

Ms. Hoang Thi Ho, Po Khoang village, Khanh Xuan commune, Loc Binh district said: “At the end of December 2022, I come to the Commune People’s Committee to submit an application to change the land use purpose from agricultural land to residential land. Thanks to the convenient search and verification of information, my application was handled quickly and on time by the authorities.

The VILG project was approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 930/QD-TTg dated May 30, 2016. The project is implemented in 30 provinces and cities across the country. The goal of the project is to improve the efficiency and transparency of land management services by building and operating a unified national land database system across the country.

It is known that from January 2023, the land database system of 3 districts (Cao Loc, Loc Binh, Binh Gia) was put into operation, serving the State management of land in the locality. In Lang Son city alone, the construction unit is still completing it. This is because the project of measuring and correcting cadastral maps, granting and changing land use right certificates of Lang Son city has not been completed yet, hence, there haven’t any documents and data to hand over to relevant units.

Mr. Ngo Viet Hai, Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said: “According to the plan, the deadline for completing the VILG project is the end of December 2021. However, the progress of project in provinces and cities across the country is slow, therefore, MNRE extended the project completion deadline to June 30, 2023. In Lang Son province, up to now, the project implementation in 3 districts has been mostly completed and put into operation to serve the State management of land. As for Lang Son city, in order to speed up the implementation progress, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment regularly inspects and promptly solves difficulties and problems during project implementation. At the same time, the Department actively urges construction units and related agencies to strengthen coordination and promptly solve problems in the process of completing the land database… Since then, it is determined to complete the project before May 31, 2023.

The organization and management of land data on the basis of modern digital technology has contributed to regularly and continuously updated information. Since then, it helps to improve the efficiency of the management, processing and exploitation of land data, meeting the requirements of the State management of land in the new situation.