HANOI: Continuous administrative review must be carried out to reduce compliance costs and inconvenience for citizens and businesses, said Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh as he chaired the Government’s February thematic session on law-making on Friday (Feb 27).
Discussions at the meeting centred on the draft amendments to the Capital Law; the Law on Civil Status; the Law on Overseas Representative Missions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; the Law on Belief and Religion; as well as the draft National Assembly (NA)’s resolution on coordination mechanisms and special policies to improve the effectiveness of preventing and resolving international investment disputes.
Regarding the draft revised Capital Law, PM Chinh and officials stressed specific, breakthrough and stable mechanisms with a long-term vision, appropriate to the position, role and distinctive nature of the capital city, within the overall context of national development and global trends.
On the draft NA resolution, Government members proposed a number of preferential mechanisms for persons and agencies in charge, as well as measures to strengthen inter-agency coordination on this issue.
For the draft revised Law on Civil Status, the Government focused on amending and supplementing provisions to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of State management, while promoting decentralisation and the delegation of authority in this area, in line with the two-tier local government model.
Regarding the draft amendment to the Law on Belief and Religion, officials discussed specific provisions on the right to belief and religion, ensuring full institutionalisation of the Party’s guidelines and policies and promoting the great national unity bloc.
To improve the performance of Vietnam’s overseas representative missions, Government members proposed that the amended Law on Overseas Representative Missions clearly define organisational structure, functions, tasks, powers, as well as incentive and talent attraction policies.
PM Chinh asked ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and Government-affiliated bodies to lead and directly engage in institutional development within their respective sectors and across the broader Government framework.
In the law-making process, he stressed the need to fully translate the Party’s guidelines and policies into laws, to innovate, to roll out sweeping decentralisation and delegation of authority in tandem with appropriate resource allocation, to strengthen enforcement capacity, and to design effective inspection, supervision and power-control tools.
Laws should stipulate only fundamental and principled issues, with detailed regulations delegated to drafting agencies for inclusion in guiding decrees. Policy articulation, he stressed, must ensure clarity, accessibility, ease of enforcement, and effective oversight.
Drafting agencies were assigned to incorporate feedback from Government members, while also consulting experts, scientists, legal practitioners, affected stakeholders, and international best practices adapted to Việt Nam’s context, to finalise draft documents for submission to competent authorities.
Close coordination among ministries, central agencies and NA bodies is essential to forge consensus during verification, explanation, feedback integration, and revision of drafts in line with opinions from the NA Standing Committee and deputies.
Ministries and agencies must swiftly issue decrees and circulars to guide enforcement once laws take effect.
At the 16th NA’s first session, the Government plans to submit 34 documents for approval, including 15 draft laws and resolutions, many of which are complex with wide-ranging socio-economic implications.
The PM therefore called on ministries and agencies, particularly ministers and heads of ministerial-level agencies, to pool maximum resources and personally direct the completion of draft laws and resolutions already reviewed by the Government to ensure quality and timely submission for NA consideration.
Completed documents and reports should be promptly forwarded to NA bodies for appraisal and to the NA Standing Committee for input.
Relevant agencies must report immediately to the Government and PM on any examination and revision of draft laws, or issues beyond their authority.
For the draft laws and resolution discussed, the PM assigned the ministries of justice, foreign affairs, and ethnic and religious affairs to fully absorb opinions from Government members and the session, and urgently finalise the drafts to ensure both progress and quality. - Vietnam News/ANN
