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| A plenary meeting of the 15th National Assembly during its 6th session__Photo: Tri Dung/VNA |
A total of nine bills and one resolution will be passed at the sixth session of the 15th National Assembly (NA).
The session is being held in two phases with a total duration of 22 days. The first phase was opened on October 23 and would last through November 10. The second phase will take place from November 20 to 28.
To-be-passed bills include seven revised laws, namely the Land Law, Law on Real Estate Business, Housing Law, Law on Water Resources, Telecommunications Law, Law on Citizen Identification, and Law on Credit Institutions, and two completely new laws, namely the Law on Management and Protection of Defense Works and Military Zones and Law on Forces Participating in Safeguarding of Grassroots Security and Order. The NA will also adopt a draft resolution on piloting a number of mechanisms and policies to tackle hurdles concerning provisions of laws on investment in building road facilities.
The legislative body will give comments on eight bills, six of which were proposed by the NA Standing Committee to be added to the 2023 Law- and Ordinance-Making Program. They include the draft Law on the Defense and Security Industry and Industrial Mobilization, draft Law on Road Traffic, draft Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety, draft Law on the Capital (amended), draft Law on Organization of People’s Courts (amended), and draft Law Amending a Number of Articles of the Law on Property Auction. The other two are the draft revised Laws on Social Insurance and on Archives.
With seven chapters and 73 articles, the draft Law on the Defense and Security Industry and Industrial Mobilization stipulates the roles, functions, tasks, principles for organization and operation of, regimes and policies for, the sector.
Compared to the current Law on Road Traffic, the draft revised Law on Road Traffic has three chapters moved to the draft Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety, including the chapters on road traffic rules (Chapter II), vehicles joining in road traffic (Chapter IV) and operators of vehicles joining in road traffic (Chapter V).
The draft Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety comprises nine chapters with 81 articles, focusing on people’s safety, state agencies’ management and responsibilities, and addressing the shortcomings of the current law on road traffic.
The draft revision of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance, with 136 articles arranged in 10 chapters, is intended to increase social insurance coverage and improve the efficiency of voluntary social insurance schemes.
The draft revised Law on Archives has nine chapters and 68 articles, up two chapters and 26 articles compared to the existing law. It focuses on the competence for archives management, archiving digital and electronic documents, private archives and archive service operations.
The draft Law on the Capital (amended) has seven chapters with 59 articles, up three chapters and 32 articles compared to the 2012 version. It is aimed at optimizing Hanoi’s strengths and potential as the growth driver of the Red River delta, the northern key economic region and the whole country while improving international integration and competitiveness.
The amended draft Law on Organization of People’s Courts consists of 154 articles arranged into nine chapters. Compared to the 2014 version, 54 new articles are added, 93 are amended and seven remain unchanged.
The draft Law Amending a Number of Articles of the Law on Property Auction has three new articles, with updates on the types of property required to be sold through auction and improve the operation and management of the sector.
At the session, the vote of confidence on officials holding the positions elected or approved by the NA, was held.
The organization of the vote aims to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of the parliament’s supervisory activities and the State apparatus’s activities, help assess the prestige and performance of officials, and help them realise the confidence they are given so as to continue making self-improvement and bettering their performance. It is also a basis for authorised agencies to carry out personnel planning, training, appointment, and use.
Forty-nine people are holding the positions elected or approved by the NA at present, including the President, Vice President, Chairperson and Vice Chairpersons of the NA, members of the NA Standing Committee, NA Secretary General, Chairperson of the NA’s Council for Ethnic Affairs, Chairpersons of the NA committees, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers, ministers and other members of the Government, Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court, Prosecutor General of the Supreme People’s Procuracy, and Auditor General of the State Audit Office. Of these officials, five were elected or approved in 2023, hence, 44 were subject to vote of confidence. Those five officials are President Vo Van Thuong, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh, and member of the NA Standing Committee and Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Financial and Budgetary Affairs Le Quang Manh.
NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said the vote of confidence was held in a strict, democratic, objective, transparent, and serious manner in line with Resolution No. 96/2023/QH15 on the collection and casting of votes of confidence on persons holding positions elected or approved by the NA and People’s Councils.
Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc, former Vice Chairman of the NA Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children, said that in this time’s vote of confidence, most officials had votes of “high confidence”, much higher than “low confidence” ones. Chuc considered this an encouraging sign as it reflected officials’ fulfillment of their duties as well as the country’s determination to surmount pandemic-triggered difficulties.
At the sixth session, legislators also discussed the socio-economic development in 2023 and the tentative plan for the remaining months of 2023 and 2024. They acknowledged that despite significant difficulties and challenges, the country recorded a GDP growth rate of 5.33 percent. However, legislators pointed out that businesses were facing various challenges, such as difficulties in capital access, heavy tax burdens, and volatile prices. They urged the Government to thoroughly analyze this issue, carefully consider relaxing lending conditions, and develop solutions to remove bottlenecks and support production and business activities. They also suggested continued implementation of the resolution on a 2-percent reduction of value-added tax, with an extension until the end of 2024 and the reduction and even exemption of land taxes for businesses.-
