Thailand’s National Reform Council (NRC) was set to consider the establishment of a Land Bank and its supporting Bill yesterday.
The Bill aims to establish fair and just mechanisms for land holding distribution. It aims to support landless farmers to have sufficient amount of both arable and residential land, which it claims would lead to the strength of local community.
The Bill focuses on the mechanism of the Community Title Deed Policy so that members of each community will have roles in managing communal land. It encourages optimum and sustainable use of state and privately owned land.
The proposed Land Bank will be an organisation under the Finance Ministry. It will be responsible for granting financial support in forms of loans and leasing to farmers who lose land due to failure to pay back loans to financiers.
The Land Bank will work in three stages. The first stage focuses on helping owners of mortgage-off lands. It will later consider managing unused government-owned land to support landless ones. In the long-term, a Committee for Land Bank will be set up to secure private land for distribution and supervise the management of those lands.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg
