Vietnam must issue land titles

Vietnam must issue land titles

HANOI (Reuter): A United Nations agency has called on communist Vietnam to issue land use certificates for all land in the country to "support the development of a competitive market economy".

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in a statement made available to Reuters yesterday, said a modern land administration system could be administered within 15 years at an estimated cost of US$350 million.

It said this would involve defining and registering about 75 million land parcels in Vietnam, a largely agricultural nation where all land is state-owned.

The government has issued 2.5 million land use certificates since January 1991.

The UNDP statement said all parties -- farmers, urban land holders and foreign and local investors -- would benefit from a modern land administration system.