EXCLUSIVE MECHANISM IN KHANH HOA: THE REPURPOSING OF PADDY LAND UNDER 500 HA SHALL BE DECIDED BY THE PROVINCIAL PEOPLE'S COUNCIL

On June 16, 2022, the National Assembly issued Resolution No. 55/2022/QH15 ("Resolution 55") on piloting a number of exclusive mechanisms and policies for the development of Khanh Hoa province, especially in land management activities. Accordingly, the People's Council of Khanh Hoa province shall decide to change the use purpose of paddy land under 500 hectares; and to change the use purpose of production forests under 1,000 hectares as authorized by the Prime Minister. In order to concretize the aforementioned policies, on November 18, 2022, the  Prime Minister issued Decision No. 23/2022/QD-TTg clarifying the competence and procedures for approving the repurposing of forest land from 50 hectares to 1000 hectares in Khanh Hoa province ("Decision 23"), which was updated by ATA Legal Services here.

After Decision 23, on February 24, 2023, the Prime Minister continued to adopt Decision No. 6/2023/QD-TTg on the procedures for approving the repurposing of paddy land under 500 hectares under the authority of the Prime Minister to be authorized to the People's Council of Khanh Hoa province ("Decision 6").

There are some highlights in Decision 6:

Conditions for approval of land repurposing for implementation of investment projects:

1. The investment project requires repurposing of paddy land under 500 hectares in Khanh Hoa province.
2. In accordance with land use plans decided by competent authorities and other relevant plans in accordance with law.
3. The investment has been approved as per the law of which the approval decision is valid until the proposal date; particularly for projects subject to land acquisition as prescribed in Article 62.3 of the Land Law, it must be approved by the Provincial People's Council.
4. There is a plan to use the surface soil in accordance with the law on cultivation.

Procedures of requesting approval for land repurposing:

The procedure is shown in the diagram below:

The trial procedures for requesting approval for the land repurpose mentioned above is applied to applications submitted from the effective date of Resolution 55 (June 16, 2022) to its expiration date (August 1, 2027). In cases where the Provincial People's Committee has submitted valid application to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in advance of June 16, 2022, it will continue to comply with the provisions of the current law on land.