The impact of land market processes on the poor in rural Vietnam

Abstract

This paper examines the link between formal land tenure and poverty alleviation in the context of rural Vietnam. It assesses the relevance of the ideas of Hernando de Soto through the documentation of both formal and informal land market processes in order to identify efficiencies. The findings suggest that Vietnam has made significant progress in extending formal land use rights to agricultural land. However, obstacles remain in the issue of title on rural residential land, including high land use levies, costs of converting garden to residential land, surveying costs and the skills of cadastral officials. Transactions in agricultural land increasingly take place within the formal sector. I..