More Than 800,000 Land Titles Issued

The holders of some 806,579 land plots have been issued with land titles, representing 80.66 percent of the five-year plan to issue land titles for 1 million plots by 2015, according to an official report.

The report was presented at a meeting of the natural resources and environment sector held yesterday in Vientiane.
Chaired by Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Ms Bounkham Vorachit, the one-day meeting reviewed the progress made in implementing the sector’s five-year plan (2011-2015) and discussed the next five-year plan for 2016-2020.
Officials in charge will strive to issue 1 million land titles by the end of next year, Director General of the ministry’s Planning and Cooperation Department, Mr Xaynakhone Inthavong, told the meeting.

Presenting the report to the meeting, he listed the achievements the sector has made so far.
These included the fact that officials in charge have completed the draft of the National Land Policy, draft amendments to the Law on Land, and Master Plan on Land Use, which will be the major instruments for land development and management in Laos.
In addition, officials have devised a plan for land allocation (at village level) for 4,608 villages, equivalent to 53 percent of all villages nationwide.

Meanwhile, they also completed the plan on land allocation (at district level) for 55 districts or 37.9 percent of all districts nationwide.
The ministry succeeded in compiling land plot statistics, which showed that there are some 2,633,217 land plots nationwide covering a combined area of more than 4.99 million hectares.

Land use rights to the plots are owned by both individuals and organisations. Of the total land plots (2,633,217), only 1,279,927 plots or 48.61 percent have been recorded in the computer system.

Officials have also compiled a land database to record parcels of land which have been granted as concessions to investors. Land plots awarded to 3,066 projects covering a combined area of more than 9 million hectares were compiled in the database.

The database was an important reference for revenue collection from land leases and concessions, Mr Xaynakhone said.
Yesterday’s meeting also shared ideas to develop the draft vision of the natural resources and environment sector until 2030, and a 10-year strategy for 2016-2025. Participants also discussed the next five-year plan from 2016-2020.

Deputy Minister Ms Bounkham said the meeting provided an important and meaningful platform for participants to identify shortcomings and explore solutions to problems and make use of the lessons learnt for greater achievements in the year to come.

Source: Vientiane Times