Land rents are rising too quickly, according to members of the businesscommunity who met in Hanoi at a conference entitled "Property Rights andEnterprise Development".

The meeting last week was co-organised by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and World Bank Group.

Somebusiness rents have remained stable, being set by five year leasessigned before 2011, said Le Thanh Hai from the VCCI's EnterpriseDevelopment Foundation.

Land rental fees throughout Vietnam,however, have continuously increased, now being about twice as costly aslast year, despite exemption policies in place from 2011 to 2014, sheadded.

Howerver, representatives of businesses from the northernprovince of Hai Phong complained that land rentals in 2015 increasedfrom two to 4.5 times, compared to last year - and by 10 times comparedto 2010.

And businesses in Hanoi reported that rents increased from five times to as much as 25 times.

Inthe hospitality industry, construction has been scheduled in largeleased areas with high proportions set aside for park areas with treesand a lower proportion for construction.

Therefore, high landrental costs reduce their competitiveness in the hospitality industry,compared to other countries in the region, according to the TourismAdvisory Board (TAB).

The business community proposed thatspecific plans were needed due to increasing costs of leasing land, andceiling prices should not be allowed to reach two times higher than the2010 price, following Resolution No 02/2013/NQ-CP dated January 7, 2013of the Government.

Yet, the demand to build on land is increasing, as the economy continues to show signs of recovery.

Ofnote, there were 401,000 operating companies at the end of 2014. Ofthose, 74,842 were newly registered enterprises in Vietnam.-VNA