Vietnam's rapid and sustainedeconomic growth and poverty reduction in the last twodecades benefitted from the policy and legal reformsembodied in the Land Laws of 1987, 1993 and 2003 andsubsequent related legal acts. This note outlines reformsrelated to four main themes. The first relates to the neededreform for agriculture land use to create opportunity toenhance effectiveness of land use as well as to securefarmers' rights in land use. Prolonging the duration ofagricultural land tenure would give land users greaterincentives to invest and care for the land. Raising the landholding ceiling and allowing greater land accumulation wouldfacilitate greater economies of scale, and extending therights of agricultural land users to alter the land usepurpose will further improve efficiency. This scope for moreflexible land use will become increasingly important in thecontext of climate change, with farmers needing to make arange of adjustments based upon expected weather patternsand the associated risks. The second set of priority reformsis to create transparent and equitable land acquisition andcompensation by the State. Limiting the use of compulsoryland acquisition only to cases for the public's benefitwould similarly give land users more fairness and moreconfidence in their rights related to land. By relyingpredominantly on voluntary land conversions, there wouldalso be a stronger sense of equity in those cases when landusers actually do lose their land. Changing the focus ofland compensation pricing (in cases of compulsory landacquisition), and introducing innovations such as benefitsharing, land pooling and land readjustment are alsoessential for generating a sense of fairness. Creating anefficient grievance redress mechanism at the investmentproject level would reduce complaints, speed up projectimplementation and facilitate social stability. A third setof priority reforms is that the land law should offer theopportunity to reaffirm and strengthen the land use rightsof vulnerable groups, such as women, the poor and ethnicminority communities. Land management oversight can be mademore efficient by amending the land managementdecentralization and building monitoring and evaluationsystems. Expanding the coverage of Land Use RightsCertificates (LURCs) and ensuring the rights and benefits ofthe land users would further help improve efficiency andfairness. Finally, the fourth set of priority reforms isaimed at making the governance system more effective andaccountable. Developing a more flexible and effective landplanning management system, and improving transparency ofland and anti-corruption in land management are all neededto take Vietnam's land governance system closer to thatworthy of a middle income country.
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