Kyrgyzstan wants to introduce a new cadastral management system to reduce corruption and eliminate falsification of land documents. The relevant changes are spelt out in the draft law of the new Land Code. However, the document itself raises many questions. Even the explanations of the head of the State Agency for Land Resources and Cadastre on how the new system will be organised have not clarified the situation, in connection with which reports began to appear on the Internet that the new approach to land management is another attempt to deprive Kyrgyz citizens of the right to private property.

Since April 2024, the Jogorku Kenesh has been considering the draft law of the New Land Code. During that time, it has been considered in the first reading by 5 committees. At the last of them, the Director of the State Agency for Land Resources Asylbek Satyvaldiev told deputies about the need to eliminate the green and red books and introduce a cadastral plan. According to the head of the agency, the need for such changes has arisen because of frequent fraud and forgeries of documents.

"The new document will contain a unique QR code, by which it will be possible to know all the information about the land plot, including the area, type, category and type of ownership. The introducing a QR code into the cadastral plan will simplify access to information and avoid the risks of forgery that often arise with existing books. In addition, the red and green books' production entails high costs, which will not be there when the cadastral plan is introduced,' Asylbek Satyvaldiyev explained in the Parliament.

So far, the words of the head of the State Agency for Land Resources are not supported by documents, because there is no information about QR in the draft law of the new Land Code. It says the following:

"When granting a land plot for ownership or use, the document certifying the right to the land plot is a cadastral plan. The cadastral plan form shall be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic".

In response to the lack of clear conditions, information has already started to spread in social networks and other Internet sources saying that the new approach has many pitfalls. For example, all owners of plots owning red and green books will lose their private property because the cadastral plan does not have the same force as the state deed. Akchabar's editorial board turned to Vladimir Pluzhnik, a lawyer at the VIGENS centre, to dispel myths about the possible abandonment of land registers.

"The initiative expressed by the state body today is in no way a bill to withdraw or to terminate the state certificates of private land ownership that have been issued and are in force now. Since, according to the Land Code, only a court has the right to invalidate this document,' the expert informed.

In its turn, the State Agency for Land Resources gave a rebuttal to the statements of ‘sofa experts’.

‘The draft Land Code of the Kyrgyz Republic replaces the legal documents, issuing a single document as a cadastral plan, which will be signed by the authorised person in the name and certified by the seal of the legislative body and will have the same legal force as constituent documents,’ the agency said in a statement.

It is specified that the Agency strives to find an efficient way to check the documents for originality. With the development of QR code technology, such an opportunity has appeared. The task of such an interactive code is to check a certain document for authenticity. This will allow the right owners to make sure that document on the land plot is genuine.

Undoubtedly, this approach has its place, but in the age of cybercrime, it is even more difficult to trust electronic documents, even given that nowadays paper versions are forged. The State Agency for Land Resources also has a response to this question.

"In response to reproaches about threats to the security of the database, we inform that to ensure the security of the real estate database, the Agency's automated system of registration of rights to immovable property is duplicated at the local and central levels. The database is replicated daily and backed up. The system is also provided with appropriate protection against unauthorised destruction, blocking, modification, copying of information or neutralisation of information protection means, as well as response to detection of these programmes and information", - the State Agency for Land Resources said in its statement.

Having studied the documents accompanying the draft of the new Land Code, the editorial staff of Akchabar concluded that its full-fledged functioning will be possible only after the adoption of additional regulations, provisions and resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers, which will be developed on its basis. Therefore, it is premature to talk about the protection and efficiency of the system, especially given that the draft code has only passed its first reading in the Jogorku Kenesh committees.

Even representatives of the State Agency for Land Resources have so far found it difficult to answer questions about where the system will be purchased, what data centres will be selected and what the new ownership document will look like. They refer to the fact that the law is still under consideration.

A logical question arises: "How can a draft law of the new Land Code in such a crude form pass its first reading in committees without any comments if the protection of private property directly depends on it? Moreover, not every citizen will agree to hand over their documents to the state for storage - many people feel more comfortable when the boundaries of their land plot are fixed on paper, which can be kept in their archives, no matter how much it costs in the end (one of the reasons mentioned in the explanatory note to the bill is the cost of obtaining a state certificate. - Author's note).

If consider the issue in detail, a cadastral plan is a technical document that fixes the boundaries and owners of plots based on geospatial data. On the other hand, a state deed is a form of ownership registration, confirming ownership based on title documents. Yes, the state deed does not contain precise data on the boundaries, but wouldn't it be easier to merely attach a cadastral plan or a QR code containing information on the boundaries of the plot?