Clean data - Bright trust: Standardizing for digital public services

Accelerating data cleaning with new digital tools

Mr. Luu Van Nang, Head of the Department of Statistics, Inventory and Land Information (General Department of Land Management), has announced that the agency has issued Document No. 2841 to provincial Departments of Agriculture and Environment providing instructions for collecting land-use right certificates via the VNeID application. This is an important document to put the new digital utility into synchronous operation across the entire sector.

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According to Mr. Nang, the implementation of the utility for submitting and declaring “red book” information on VNeID is jointly carried out by the General Department of Land Management, the Department of Digital Transformation (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) and the Police Department for Administrative Management of Social Order (C06 - Ministry of Public Security). This tool enables land users and property owners to provide information on the types of certificates stipulated in Clause 21, Article 3 of the Land Law.

Under the new mechanism, instead of submitting photocopies of their certificates, citizens only need to open the VNeID application, follow the 8-step instructions and send the data online to the State authorities. This reduces the workload for frontline administrative units and ensures the data is standardized directly at the source.

The General Department of Land Management requests that provincial Departments of Agriculture and Environment promptly disseminate and guide residents to update certificate information via VNeID while continuing to collect paper documents in accordance with the existing plan.

Notably, certificates previously collected at localities do not need to be updated in VNeID unless requested by citizens. When providing information, the original certificate is preferred; if the original is unavailable, a photocopy may be submitted.

During the declaration process, if the sender is not the person named on the certificate, the system requires full information about the certificate holder and the reason for declaration on their behalf, such as inheritance, gifting, transfer, or authorized submission. This helps ensure data accuracy and enhances verification capacity when integrating into the system.

Toward digital public services in land administration

According to Mr. Mai Van Phan, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Land Management, integrating the online submission tool for land-use right certificates via VNeID is a breakthrough in administrative reform and modern land governance.

He explained: “Previously, if you lived in Hanoi but owned land in Da Nang, Khanh Hoa or Ho Chi Minh City, you had to send documents or rely on someone to submit them. Now, you upload your data to the system, and we will extract and forward it to the correct locality for verification”. This utility helps standardize data nationwide, reducing risks of loss, errors and dependency on paper records.

When asked why a copy of the certificate is necessary, the General Department representative explained that registration and issuance of certificates occurred over many periods, each with its own forms and regulations. Some certificates listed only the household head, without ID numbers, or were based on temporary maps or Map 299. This has left many data gaps, hindering verification and updates.

In addition, citizens’ personal documents have changed over time (from 9-digit to 12-digit ID cards, to barcode-based ID cards, and now chip-based identity cards), making automatic data synchronization impossible.

Furthermore, many cases involve informal land transfers, changes in land-use purpose, filling of ponds or gardens, or construction of houses without completing the required legal procedures. These gaps lead to inconsistencies between actual land status and State records.

In some localities, natural disasters such as flash floods or flooding have damaged parts of stored records, complicating verification. Therefore, providing original or photocopied certificates via VNeID helps restore lost or damaged data.

Collecting and standardizing certificate data not only serves the current campaign but also lays the foundation for the comprehensive modernization of the land management system.

Once the database is complete, citizens handling inheritance, land division, transfer or land-use change procedures will no longer need to carry old documents. Instead, State agencies will extract data from the system and conduct electronic verification, ensuring faster, more transparent processing and reducing risks of document forgery.

This is also a crucial step toward providing land-related public services with minimal paperwork and direct interaction, thereby reducing administrative pressure at the local level.