Lands Minister Mereseini Vuniwaqa says landowners can withdraw land deposited in the land bank as specified in the Land Use Regulations.
Vuniwaqa made the comment in response to a question from the Opposition member Josefa Dulakiverata in Parliament today.
‘’It requires the trustees of the land owning unit to make the request formally in writing. It also requires that at least five years has passed since the depositing of land in the land bank. That is basically the timeline that is given to the Land Bank to get investors for land that is deposited in the land bank, the third condition is that the land is currently not leased to anybody and the fourth one is that the land is not likely to be leased in the one year immediately after the request for cessation of designation is made’’.
Vuniwaqa says of the 79 parcels of land deposited in the land bank, 26 have been leased.
She says the remaining parcels of land will need input like surveying and developing.
The government has allocated $2.5 million in the 2015 budget to facilitate this.
