Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnamese researcher at the Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research, says the public is losing control of public land. “Corruption soars alongside privatization, which is reaching new highs. (…) This situation has been obvious to the people for a long time, but it has become even more blatant lately, as Vietnam’s privatization efforts are at an all-time high. The current aim is to reduce the number of state-owned businesses to 150 in 2020. This is important. Not just for our average citizens whose homes stand on top of these “public land,” but for our society as a whole. Vietnam’s land is currently priced at $34 billion, the most valuable commodity for the public. Half of this most precious resource is being managed by numerous public firms and authorities. For the government, our land is literal money bags.”