Clean data - Bright trust: [Part 6] Overcoming data 'gaps'

In the context where digital transformation is an inevitable trend, the Agriculture and Environment sector is entering a new phase of development with the aspiration to modernize land administration, a core field with deep and extensive impacts on socio-economic development. The campaign “90 days to enrich and clean land data” (September 1 - November 30, 2025) is a strategic step to standardize, purify and activate the national land database in accordance with the criteria of “accurate - sufficient - clean - live”. No longer dependent on old, inconsistent and scattered paper records, land data is being digitized, made transparent and updated in real time, marking the beginning of a revolution in management thinking.

Toward the 80th anniversary of the Agriculture and Environment sector (November 14, 1945 - November 14, 2025), VAN News presents the series “Clean data - Bright trust”, portraying the journey from paper-based records to digital platforms, reinforcing trust in a fair, transparent and sustainable land administration system.

Data “gaps”

The campaign to enrich and clean the land database in Lao Cai province is facing numerous difficulties due to inconsistent data and fragmented records. Van Chan Commune is one of the localities clearly showing these systemic obstacles.

Although it is one of the communes that proactively implemented the work early, Van Chan commune like many other localities, still faces major problems due to large data shortages. According to Mr. Vu Trong Nghia, Head of the Economic Office of Van Chan commune, Lao Cai province, among 705 individuals whose information needs verification, only 551 cases have so far been successfully matched with the National Population Database. The remaining 154 cases have not been contacted, mainly because residents are working away from home, lack contact information or do not possess complete identification documents.

The difficulty does not stop at verification. A bigger bottleneck is that many individuals have never had official land data. Among 620 such cases, as of November 9, 2025, the commune had only completed data entry for 445 people.

Behind these numbers are both objective and subjective causes. One of the most common reasons is that many households still keep handwritten land transaction papers dating back many years and have never carried out legal procedures to obtain Land use rights certificates.

More notably, in many high-mountain and remote communes, large areas of land have never been measured or mapped according to official cadastral procedures. This means no standardized information exists to determine locations, boundaries or land-parcel areas, making it impossible to incorporate such parcels into the digital system.

Additionally, the VBDLIS software has not yet obtained an official license, significantly affecting the updating, error-correction and operation of the system, delaying progress in several grassroots units.

Determined to overcome difficulties and finish on time

The challenge is not limited to communes and wards, the entire Lao Cai province is confronting a “mountain of data” that must be processed. According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ha, Director of the Land Registration Office (Department of Agriculture and Environment, Lao Cai province), the province has currently verified only about 61% of total land parcels, equivalent to 1.49 million cases. The largest difficulty is that nearly 728,000 parcels lack land-user information for cross-checking with the population database.

Time pressure is increasing as the completion deadline is set for November 10, 2025. Meanwhile, the verification and updating progress of many communes remains slow. By the end of October 2025, only more than 205,000 land parcels needing supplementary verification had been updated by commune-level units.

Progress in “enriching” data, collecting Land use rights certificates and citizen ID cards in areas without existing data, also shows disparities. As of October 30, 2025, although 67 out of 99 communes and wards had submitted their results, the total number of certificates collected reached only more than 25,500, far below requirements.

These difficulties reflect a reality: land data in Lao Cai has been formed through multiple historical periods, resulting in fragmentation and inconsistency. Many land-user information profiles cannot be found in the population database and need to be supplemented and verified manually. Particularly, in 27 communes of four districts previously part of the former Yen Bai province, a very large number of parcels have been issued Land use rights certificates but still lack cadastral data because they were never measured or mapped. This is a data gap that cannot be solved with technology alone; it must be addressed manually, requiring time and substantial workforce.

Faced with this situation, Lao Cai province has demonstrated a clear determination to overcome obstacles. The Department of Agriculture and Environment has requested the Provincial People’s Committee to direct local authorities to mobilize maximum forces, from police to sectoral units, to speed up the collection of records, supplement missing data and address bottlenecks in each commune.

The immediate requirement is to thoroughly resolve the “bottlenecks” in communes that have not yet submitted data or are still slow in verification and data enrichment. In addition to accelerating progress, localities must coordinate closely on technical issues, strengthen manual reviews and enhance accountability in every step of the process.

The campaign to clean and enrich the land database in Lao Cai is not merely an administrative task; it is a strategic step toward building a foundational data system that supports effective, transparent and sustainable land administration. Its success will make an important contribution to modernizing public administration, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of state management and creating more favourable conditions for citizens and businesses in accessing land information.