COMPREHENSIVE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACCORDING TO LAW ON SOCIAL HOUSING IN VIETNAM

10.2478/bjlp-2022-002087

Abstract

Purpose: The paper analyzes and clarifies the relationship between ensuring the right to appropriate accommodation, reasonable and stable prices, and convenient living conditions for job search as well as essential services such as education, health care in the context that Vietnam is transforming its economy towards industry leading to the formation of more and more concentrated economic zones and migration from rural areas to urban areas as well as concentrated economic zones. This situation increases the pressure to meet the housing needs of workers, especially migrant workers. Effectively addressing the housing needs of migrant workers through social housing policies, in addition to close links between the state, investors and employers, must also rely on transparent and clear administrative procedures and reasonable social-housing price policy as well as preferential credit policy. Theoretical framework: There have been many studies explaining and clarifying the need to build a legal framework for social housing, especially social housing for workers and migrant workers from rural areas to urban areas or concentrated economic zones. In fact, the implementation of the law on social housing shows that the number of approved and implemented social housing projects has not met the great needs of reality; sometimes approved social housing projects are “suspended” or social housing projects cannot compete with commercial housing projects. This makes the expected effect of the social housing policy not obtained. Design/methodology/approach: The main method used in this study is the legal analysis method – a traditional jurisprudence research method (Pham, D.N. 2014. The source of the law used for analysis and evaluation is the 2014 Housing Law and its guiding documents. In addition to the State Law, the paper also uses legal norms in land, socio-economic development planning, including planning for development of concentrated economic zones (including export processing zones, industrial zones, industrial clusters, high-tech parks), regional and urban development planning to clarify the requirement to ensure synchronization between development of the concentrated economic zone and development of infrastructure, especially housing, in which social housing is a factor to ensure sustainable development. In addition to the legal document data source, the paper also uses archival data sources, which are the research works published in scientific journals, the domestic and foreign scientific conferences. Besides, the paper uses the best experience of social housing development in the locality to properly deal with the relationship between urban development planning and the concentrated economic zone development planning. The general methods of the social sciences, including: the systems method, the functional structure method, and the historical method (Anol Bhattacherjee, 2012) are also used in this study. Findings: In order to develop social housing, in addition to ensuring a reasonable social housing price, it also needs to be secured by appropriate land fund, financial and credit policies (for both investors and buyers of social housing) and harmony in the planning of social housing architecture (in the process of urbanization and development of concentrated economic zones). Besides, ensuring the harmony of architectural planning of social housing infrastructure to serve the needs of living, studying, and entertainment must also be given due attention. This expectation can only be achieved if there is strong involvement of state agencies to remove bottlenecks in the process of social housing law enforcement in Vietnam. Research, Practical & Social implications: Social housing policies and laws in Vietnam have faced many difficulties in practical implementation. Therefore, most social housing is still “on paper”, in legal regulations or in planning. This practice requires the effective and timely solutions to put the legal provisions on housing into practice in the spirit that the regulations must be implemented in practice. Originality/value: Ensuring the enforcement of social housing legislation in Vietnam's development conditions requires more active participation of the state, including the central government as well as local authorities at all levels. Ensuring the land fund and capital source for investors to develop social housing is a necessary condition to obtain reasonable social housing prices. Simple administrative procedures and credit support are sufficient conditions for people to access social housing. Moreover, the State also needs to ensure harmony in the development of social housing in the process of urbanization and development of concentrated economic zones.