According to Point a, Clause 1, Article 112 of Decree 102/2024/ND-CP, for the area of rice-growing land, protective forest land, special-use forest land that has been approved in writing by the Prime Minister before August 1, 2024 or approved by the Resolution of the Provincial People's Council for use for other purposes but has not yet had a decision to recover land, allocate land, lease land, or permit the change of land use purpose to implement the project, it can be transferred to implementation in the following years but not exceeding a period of 3 years and does not have to re-do the procedures for submission to the Provincial People's Council for approval according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 122 of the Land Law if the project continues to be implemented. Mr. Phuc requested the competent authority to answer the following 2 issues:

(1) In the case where there has been a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council approved for use for other purposes before August 1, 2024 but there has not been a decision to reclaim land, allocate land, lease land, or allow change of land use purpose to implement the project, to be transferred to implementation in the following years but not exceeding 3 years from August 1, 2024 or from the effective date of the Resolution of the Provincial People's Council?

(2) In the case where there has been a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council approved for use for other purposes before August 1, 2024, there has been a decision to reclaim land but it is not complete (for example, there has been a decision to reclaim 60 land plots/100 land plots), can Point b Clause 1 Article 112 of Decree No. 102/2024/ND-CP be applied or according to which regulations?

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment answers this issue as follows:

At Point a, Clause 1, Article 112 of Decree No. 102/2024/ND-CP dated July 30, 2024 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Land Law stipulates:

"Article 112. Transitional provisions

1. Transitional provisions on land allocation, land lease, and permission to change land use purposes

a) For the area of rice-growing land, protective forest land, and special-use forest land that has been approved in writing by the Prime Minister before August 1, 2024 or approved by the Resolution of the Provincial People's Council for use for other purposes but has not yet had a decision to recover land, allocate land, lease land, or allow change of land use purpose to implement the project, it can be transferred to implementation in the following years but not exceeding a period of 03 years and does not have to re-do the procedures for submission to the Provincial People's Council for approval as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 122 of the Land Law if the project continues to be implemented;".

Thus, in cases where there has been a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council approved for use for other purposes before August 1, 2024 but there has not been a decision to recover land, allocate land, lease land, or allow change of land use purpose to implement the project, it can be transferred to implementation in the following years but not exceeding the 3-year period as prescribed in Point a, Clause 1, Article 112 of Decree No. 102/2024/ND-CP.

Clause 1, Article 122 of the 2024 Land Law stipulates:

"Article 122. Conditions for land allocation, land lease, and permission to change land use purposes

1. Competent state agencies may only decide to allocate land, lease land, or permit the change of land use purposes for rice cultivation, special-use forest land, protective forest land, and production forest land to other purposes after having a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council and meeting the grounds prescribed in Article 116 of this Law, except for cases of land use for project implementation under the authority of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister to approve and decide on investment policies according to the provisions of the Investment Law, the Law on Public Investment, the Law on Investment under the Public-Private Partnership, the Law on Petroleum; the Provincial People's Council approves and decides on investment policies according to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment, the Law on Investment under the Public-Private Partnership.

The change of land use purposes for rice cultivation, special-use forest land, protective forest land, Forest land for production purposes must comply with the criteria and conditions prescribed by the Government".

Therefore, for the area where there is no land recovery decision, it shall be implemented according to Clause 1, Article 122 of the 2024 Land Law.

We suggest that you study the provisions of the land law. If you are not sure, please contact the local natural resources and environment agency for guidance.