National Assembly deputies on October 23 elected Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, as the President for the 2016-21 tenure during the month-long sixth session which opened on October 20 in Hanoi.

The Vietnamese Government is striving towards a higher economic growth than the 6.7 percent rate set by the National Assembly, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Environmental protection tax rates for petrol and oil will increase from the beginning of 2019, according to a resolution on environmental protection tariff adopted at the 27th meeting of the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee that concluded on September 20 after nine working days.

Vietnam Law and Legal Forum would like to introduce the article by the NA Chairman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan which suggests specific solutions for improving the legal system on the organization of the state apparatus in the spirit of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW on continued renovation and rearrangement of the apparatus of the political system and Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW on continued renovation of the organizational system and improvement of the quality and efficiency of public non-business units.

The Directorate of Fisheries has proposed the government use the medium-term public investment budget for the 2016-20 period to upgrade fisheries ports to meet European Commission (EC) requirements for the supervision of fishing vessels, traceability and management of fisheries products.

On June 20, 2017, the National Assembly passed the revised Penal Code. It became effective on January 1, 2018. Several significant changes have occurred. Several acts, previously criminal, are no longer punishable. On the other hand, several previously innocent acts have been criminalized. One very large change is that an enterprise-not just an individual-may now be guilty of a crime1.

From June 19, PPP investment projects will be implemented according to Decree 63/2018/ND-CP. This decree prescribes the fields, conditions, order and procedures for investment in the form of public-private partnership.

This article summarizes significant changes in the 2015 Penal Code and its revisions in 2017, including penalizing commercial legal persons for committing certain crimes, scrapping the crime of illegally doing business, and criminally charging corruption-related offenders in the private sector.

The Prime Minister on January 12 decided to enact a plan to restructure public investment during 2017-20, with a vision toward 2025, aiming to form a rational public investment structure, improve efficiency of public investment and quality of public investment management institutions, and effectively seek and use other sources of investment for developing the socio-economic infrastructure system.