Land Transparency Study : Synthesis Report

This report presents the results of a novel study on land transparency in Vietnam; a study that focuses on the actual provision of information related to land. This study was produced as part of the Vietnam Transparency Project, an effort to systematically measure transparency, provide actionable advice on how to improve transparency, and analyze the causes and effects of transparency in Vietnam. If a country's political, economic, and social system was a human body, access to information would be the nervous system. Just as the nervous system tells the brain where we are, where we are going, whether we are tired or injured or hungry or thirsty, flows of information help ensure that decisions are made efficiently and that resources are used productively and fairly. Information helps ensure that the organizations that make up the body politic are performing as instructed, that decisions reflect the pains and pleasures of the people whom the state serves. Coupling with economic strides, Vietnam has made impressive progress in opening up flows of information over recent decades. Internet penetration has grown rapidly, and citizens have more access to global and national news than ever before. Transparency of decision making by the state has also expanded. From the publishing of budgets and fiscal information, to draft laws, to televised sessions of the National Assembly, there is no doubt that Vietnam is a more transparent place than in decades past. The same holds true for land management, with successive legal changes gradually expanding the scope of information that is declared to be public information. At the same time, citizens and firms continue to report having difficulty finding the information they need, and problems such as corruption and the misuse and waste of resources continue to constrain Vietnam s progress. In the area of land management, surveys of the perceptions of citizens and firms point to limited implementation of the land transparency rules that do exist. Many experts have highlighted the need for Vietnam to greatly expand transparency in the next phase of modernizing its institutions.