THE SITUATION AND ORIENTATION OF APPLYING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE FIELD OF LAND MANAGEMENT Foreword The application of information technology(IT)is one of the important directions of Natural Resources and Environment in the current period The application of IT is required to meet the objectives of state management about the natural resources and environment in sustainable development and the implementation of the policy of economic sectors In the field of state management of natural resources and the environment, the application of IT in the field of land management has made certain achievements, however there are many inadequate points, that need to have a longterm strategy with specific objectives and methods to get a database with modern land model, smoothly from the central to the local level and it is one of the management tools of the sector This paper deeply analyzed the current state of the application of IT from the previous period to the current one, including the factors to invest infrastructure, information, technology, software technology, human resources, the situation of existing data and policies on IT development On the basis of analyzing the existing status, the paper also proposes some specific strategies and solutions suitable with the development of technology-oriented, to promote and elevate the use of IT in the field of land management to a new level To make the application of IT in general and the development of databases on land, to achieve the above objectives, it requires to have the research with firmly scientific rationale, the investment resources and awareness on the application of IT from the leadership to managers at all levels The discussion with yourself-limited only proposed strategic directions and some specific solutions, subsequent studies as well as the implementation of the project has been and will be made the basis to achieve the objectives of the field 1 The current situation of applying IT in land management The application of IT in land management may be ranged from about 1994 to present, with the application areas from State management agencies central to the local ones On the current situation, it can be analyzed by the way of : policy and implementation mechanisms, organizational structure and human resources, technologies and investment status About the policies and implementation mechanisms The application of IT in the field of natural resources and environment in general and land management in particular before 2004, does not have the legal basis The plans applying IT for the field of land management before 1994, also had some funds from the central budget, non-refundable ODA capital and some provinces and cities with budget local In 2004, the Prime Minister signed the decision 179/2004/QD-TTg on approving the application strategy and development of IT, resources and the environment to 2015 and orientations towards 2020 (after referred to as Decision 179) In the decision 179,it gave four major objectives and key tasks The database construction of resources and the environment in general and land ones in particular is one of the most basic tasks After five years of implementing the strategy by Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, there have been changes in the context In the field of IT, the law of IT 2007 was adopted at the 7th and the 8th session of the XI National Assembly, they are important legal documents ,institutionalized the 58 th of the Directive politics On 10/4/2007 ,the Government issued Decree No 64/2007/ND-CP on the application of IT in the operation of state agencies (Decree 64) Decree specifies the content, tasks and implementation of the IT application in the operation of state agencies and determines the responsibility of the heads of agencies and units in the branches and localities To promote and implement a consistent strategy, to promote the application of IT in the field of Natural Resources and Environment, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment also had the Decision 1888/QD-BTNMT on 9/29/2008 about the establishment of the Steering Committee for implementing the strategy:”The application and development of IT resources and environment up to 2015 and orientations to 2020 (the Steering Committee for short), the Standing Deputy Nguyen Van Duc is the chief, The General Department of Land Management also has members in the Steering Committee ,and participate in the activities of the Steering Committee in the field of IT applications, in the field of land management, which is consistent with the general direction Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has submitted to the Government,issueing the Decree 102/2008/ND-CP on the collection, management, exploitation and the use of natural resources and environment database, issued on 09/15/ 2008,in which provides detailed data list of land management and builds a database of natural resources and environment at all levels and sectors Subsequently, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has promulgated a circular 07/2009/TT-BTNMT July 10, 2009 on detailing a number articles of Decree No 102/2008/ND-CP.It provides more details on the functions of the unit of collecting, managing and giving datas The General Department of Land Management has developed and implemented the project "Construction and Test Preparation of cadastral data in Vietnam" with the goal of building and imposing the standard cadastral data for Viet Nam Vietnam cadastral data standards will be applied directly to build the cadastral database ,to serve the needs of land management;to exchange the cadastral database between the land management’s level;to provide one for the needs and the community in general Vietnam cadastral data standard is based on the guidance of the geographic information standard national basis by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs and the international geographic information standards ISO 19100 Accordingly, the cadastral data standard must include provisions to standardize: the cadastral data contents, structure model of cadastral data, the coordinate reference for cadastral data, metadata for applying cadastral data, data quality requirements for cadastral, cadastral data presentation and the exchange, cadastral data distribution The state policy on land management is also in the process of finishing, the process of implementation, the report sample, the certificate of land use sample has been changed too much in the short time, leading to the application of IT having a lot of shortcomings,the editing of system put to use in a very short time, lack of funding is very popular While there were a number of legal documents, certain policies in the IT application about the land management ,but the text system is still missing a lots from the beginning, implementing, acceptance testing, technical regulations, products delivering, technical and economic norms and so on… ,be able to get a policy framework as a basis for implementation Organizational structure and human resources For the implementation of Decision 179 and the legal documents on the IT application for Natural Resources and Environment in general ,Land Management in particular, the central to local level have organised the units, responsible for IT application and the development of land databases Towards to the central agency, the General Department of Land Management has established the Center for Information Storage and land as units under the General Department (in Decision No 18/QD-TCQLDD on November,07 th ,2008 of the General Director of the General Department of Land Management, defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Center for Information Storage and land) The center has functions to build and manage the land database of the central level To the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Department of IT has the function of state management about the IT applications, proposes policies and technical regulations, supervies the test and the implementation for this work The system of office about the land use right registration, the system of storage information center, the Center for IT are available to make the application of IT and build the land database at the local-level The problem existing in the organizational structure is the overlap, is not really clear about the function of managing and providing land datas in the units, about the human resources, about capital investment for the IT application projects There is no really close connection between the projects (with basic surveys) with the construction of the database, no exchange model,no reports about the land information database between the administrative units and the subordinate administrative unit and directly upper ones In some localities, after the hosted information center delivers the documents, cadastral data for land use right registration office, the datas and documents are still less, mainly land documents land,it leads to the inefficient activities of the storage information center On the other hand, the land use right registration office is not enough manpower in IT, the task of building the database of local level still has some problems.It does not have a uniform guidelines for the organization of the land building database for any unit, so this work is done very different, depending on the locality Human resources of IT at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment is also very different and dispersed in different units, so after transfering , many units just as the test level but not in large-scale deployment, they not put the database, going to land management processes actually and support the policy decisions Technologies and investment situation It builds the land database associated with the geographic information systems technology (GIS) and CAD applications to digitize the cadastral data Through the study of different units, the projects have been implemented from 1992 onwards, many technologies have been applied in the state management centers about the land from the central to the local level, the businesses of cartography and cadastral records The basic application technology is the advanced technology in Vietnam and over the world Nowadays,it has a lot of land information systems due to various units within and outside the construction firm It can list some typical systems such as ELIS (Department of Information Technology), ViLIS (National Remote Sensing Center), EKLIS (EK Company) and many other companies The used GIS technologies are also very diverse background as ESRI's ArGIS (U.S.), MapInfo, AutoCAD and some other manufacturers Database management system using Oracle, SQL Server, Access, etc There also have some studies, which apply all open source applications in LIS construction to save the investment costs for the technology Although there are many products, many applications and units, but the application of technologies in building land databases still has some shortcomings such as: continuous change management policy, and result as the change of software with the lack of fund to update, there is no unit technical standards, there are also many differences in demand management for each area, the lack of technical support from the technology provider (typically from overseas) and land information systems development, due to the lack of human resources and financial policy, there are concerns about selecting software products for each local and other issues About the management policies, Vietnam is still in the stage of finalizing, the policy on land management, processes, systems management, statistical reporting forms and form of certificates of land use rights change much in the short term,so the software must be constantly updated to match the new policy However, the lack of investment in long-term strategy ,leads to the backwardness of business processes as using, even in some places,they can not be used ,it leads to waste huge fees The suppliers of the software as well as software applications still lack the professional and have many different needs of each management area, and the result is resulted that many construction projects, the development units have to send officials to present at the local for a long time ,for the use and fixing the system together Even in the same province, but the decentralization of land management data, result is that: in a province,it can be applied to many different software solutions, due to the lack of unit standards (currently, the General Manager land is being submitted to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment issued the Circular on standard techniques of cadastral data) ,it leads to the difficulty in the integration of data The land database has been invested over the period, many projects with many different sources, but in many localities, they not match the cadastral mapping, the initial registration documents with the process of updating land changes, it makes that the cadastral map is mapped during previous, takes much fees but outdated so the use value is limited One of the programs, the typical project is a cooperation program between Vietnam – Swedish, about the innovation of cadastral system - CPLAR This program includes the non-refundable capital by the international development agency SIDA Swedishsponsored to the General Land Administration from 1997 to 2003 The program is divided into several policy projects, increasing capacity – the th parts is about the development and application of land information system (LIS) at the provincial level and tested in a number of provinces The result of this project is to raise awareness,to transfer technology of digital cadastral mapping, database building on land registration and management in land use right certificates by technology ,replacing for handwritten ago The results of the project, not only is in the province but also is extended to test many other provinces which not be in the scope of the program Many provinces have the awareness, use the different resources to build information systems land at different levels (commune , district area, etc.) The project of completing and modernizeting land administration system of Vietnam (VLAP) with a capital of 100 million U.S dollars from the World Bank's ODA has been started by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment official on september, 18th in Hanoi VLAP which is project in Vietnam, about the field of land management, is studied for over 10 years through the cooperation of many countries, such as France, Sweden, New Zealand, Finland Pre-launch projects in nine provinces, three provinces in the Mekong Delta (Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Vinh Long), three central coastal provinces (Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa, Quang Ngai) and three Red River Delta provinces (Hanoi, Hung Yen and Thai Binh) The goal of the project is to increase the access of all subjects with land information services, by developing a complete system of land management at the local level through the development of cadastral systems and digital cadastral map The project consists of 100 different activities with the three stages of development in the next five years The first phase, with the aim of modernizing the land registration system Phase will increase land registration services Phase 3, supports the management, and monitors the quality of the project’s results The proposed application-oriented information technology in land management On the basis of the above analysis about the current situation, to make the application of IT in land management, it is necessary to perform the synchronization solutions, including: Building the institution and policy, training human resource, making the plan of capital investment The methods of building Institution and policy are grouped into the ones about standards, procedures, technical regulations, the provisions of the organizational structure of the unit is responsible for land to build database levels specified group policy updated, shared, and land use information, the regulations on the legality of the land database and modernization of administrative procedures on land ,the group of policies ,strengthening the capacity of agencies ,building and updating the database of land The solutions about the standards, processes, technical regulations need to build the land management data model at all levels, architecture about land information system under decentralized management model suitable in Vietnam particular, the standard cadastral data management at central and local level, the reporting mode, synchronization and data exchange between databases at all levels, from provincial to central level These policies need to be close coordination between the General Department of Land Management and Department of Information Technology under the general direction of the Ministry The provisions of the units’s organizational structure is responsible for building land databases at all levels,it should clearly define the responsibilities and powers of the unit as the land use right registration office, the Center land development, Technical Center, the Center for IT in the construction and maintenance of land database Together with the functions and tasks, it needs to have regulations on staffing, capacity requirements for the unit leader on the application of IT, human resources policies, the policy of attracting human resources to operate and maintain the systems The rules on the legality of the land’s database need to be developed to overcome the situation of building land’s database for reference only, not being valuable in civil transactions, state’s management , it makes the current database of land in the local which is better to print the reports, books and certificates of land use rights It should be attached the mapping process, the initial registration and certification of land use rights with the development and the revision of land database ’s changes The mechanisms, policies and specific regulations about the training of human resources include: Raising awareness about the IT application for leaders at all levels, training staffs about system administration, training the management of land information systems (network, database management and large spin value of land information system software), the policies of attracting IT human resources working in units through mechanisms of personel and remuneration of matter and spirit The policies of strengthening for land management agencies at all levels should focus on building the infrastructure of IT (IT equipment, data communication networks at all levels from social , district, provincial and national), reforming the state administrative offices, equipping the original software and land information’s systems having rights The software solutions for land information system (LIS) need to socialize, allow the units,businesses to participate in the market providing software solutions of land information systems and the platform software solutions However, it must be suitable with the requirements of state management including policy compliance, the characteristics of the applied areas and the ability of using officials in the area The responding and compatible with the cadastral data is a prerequisite to the application in the firm With this orientation,it does not have any units exclusively in the field of providing solutions to the units used (from district to provincial level) This thing solves the problem of supporting capacity of units providing solutions and creating equality in the market mechanism About the investment capital, it needs to diversify the types of capital, from the budget including: investments for initial investment projects, to the economic business capital for updating and revising land changes (as stipulated in Decree No 102/2009/ND-CP of the Government about the management of investing IT applications- using the state budget), the ODA projects (as SEMLA, VLAP) and socialized on the basis of land information provided in Vietnam's digital content market-the orientation of state The above directions should be legal on the basis of developing IT application in land management suitable with the direction of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the coordination between the central level (the General Department of Land Management and Department of Information Technology occupies an important role), the locals (land use right registration office and IT Center under the Department 10 of Natural Resources and Environment) In particular, the attention of the leaders on the plan and use the funds as analyzed helps the construction of the land database Conclusion The IT application in general and the land database construction in the inter-level, achieve the goal to 2015, most of the locals have the land’s database connecting direcetly to the databases of the central and provincial level,issue the land use right ecertificates, continuity and legal values to the database of state agencies and the social and economic institutions such as the national database on population, business, banking, insurance, real estate market development is an important task of the land management sector To achieve that goal, it is necessary to have the solution, synchronization mechanism, effectiveness and focused investment with diversify-orientitation, the socialized capitals,human resource development with the capacity management, and operating system This address would contribute some of the original ideas, we hope to receive your suggestions for land management firm ,to achieve the above mentioned objectives 11 ... will be applied directly to build the cadastral database ,to serve the needs of land management;to exchange the cadastral database between the land management’s level;to provide one for the needs... the reporting mode, synchronization and data exchange between databases at all levels, from provincial to central level These policies need to be close coordination between the General Department... Deputy Nguyen Van Duc is the chief, The General Department of Land Management also has members in the Steering Committee ,and participate in the activities of the Steering Committee in the field