Civil society proposes to improve the system of land alienation and registration

One of the reasons for the low use of land in Azerbaijan is the backwardness of the alienation of individuals and municipalities, land, as well as problems with registration. To such conclusion came the research group on farmers' land relations.

Preliminary results of the research, and prepared for them have been discussed on Wednesday at the "round table" at the International Press Center.

The coordinator of the project " Support for small business" , president of the aid business development and market economy Sabit Bagirov said that in addition to suggestions for improving the legal framework, experts consider it necessary , and institutional reforms - the creation of the Agency for Small Business Ombudsman and institutions to protect the rights of small business.

The presentation addressed the problems of transfer of rights and land registration and solutions made ??by the expert of the Public Association "Assistance to Economic Initiatives" Samir Aliyev said. The analysis showed that there are problems, like peasant farms and the municipalities. During the land reforms approximately 1.35 million hectares of land has been transferred to the ownership of the peasants. Parcels of land are now owned by families. Thus, for each transaction of purchase and sale of land requires the consent of all members of the family, which creates additional difficulties. Experts are invited to submit papers on family farms owned land subject to the rights of all members of the family.

Notary bodies, as well as the structure of the registration of transactions and the issuance of documents are located in regional centers, so farmers have to spend a lot of time for these procedures . It is proposed to authorize local governments to approve such transactions.

Proposals have been prepared to improve the mechanism and sale and lease of municipal land . Experts believe that the right to rent land without any prior competitive procedures must be returned to the municipalities.

Valuation of the land proposed to carry out independent appraisers. Upon the sale of municipal land State Registration Service charge is actually twofold legal costs and fees for services (in case of the right of the municipality to the ground and when it is sold to bidders). The experts concluded that the notarization decisions of municipalities on land relations , as well as auction commissions under the State Committee for Land and Cartography of a formal nature and unnecessary.

Municipalities determine the method of bidding for the sale of land (auction and tender) in their sole discretion, with no clear criteria for these methods. Experts believe that this creates opportunities for corruption.

The project "Support for small business" is carried out by a consortium of NGOs, which includes two regional public organizations in Ganja and Guba . It is funded by USAID and will be completed by 2017. - 08C-