Attending the opening session were: General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong; President Vo Van Thuong; Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh; Permanent member of the Secretariat Truong Thi Mai and other leaders and former leaders of the Party, State, ministries, branches, etc.

Solve many urgent problems of people and businesses

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said that the questioning content at the fifth session focused on four groups of issues in the state management fields of the Ministries: Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, Science and Technology, Transport and the Ethnic Committee.

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue delivered the opening speech at the question and answer session.

At the end of the question-and-answer session, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai will, on behalf of the Government, report and clarify issues of concern to National Assembly deputies and directly answer questions from National Assembly deputies.

At the closing session, the National Assembly will consider and vote to pass the Resolution on questioning activities to serve as a basis for implementing agencies, National Assembly agencies and National Assembly deputies to supervise the implementation.

The National Assembly Chairman said that, in addition to the four groups of issues selected for questioning, in the past days of the session, based on the reality, opinions of the people, voters and National Assembly deputies in the group discussions and the hall, the Government, the Prime Minister, ministries and branches have paid attention to promoting or initiating the resolution of many urgent issues of the people and businesses.

Specifically, on June 1, 2023, the Prime Minister issued a document requesting ministries, branches and localities to continue to promote administrative procedure reform more strongly and drastically, and improve the business environment substantially and effectively;

The Ministry of Construction has conducted a comprehensive review to consider amending and supplementing the QCVN 06:2022 Standard to meet the requirements of fire prevention and fighting, protect people's lives and property, ensure scientific basis and refer to international experience, and at the same time be suitable to the situation and practice of Vietnam;

The Ministry of Public Security directs competent agencies to directly work and provide guidance in localities with many businesses that are still facing difficulties in fire prevention and fighting;

The State Bank of Vietnam has reduced operating interest rates for the third time in 2023, which is a premise to reduce both deposit and lending interest rates, contributing to supporting businesses;

The Ministry of Industry and Trade requests EVN to urgently negotiate temporary prices with investors of wind and solar power to transition to being allowed to connect to the national grid for a number of specific projects;

On June 3, the Ministry of Transport decided to automatically extend the vehicle inspection cycle, accordingly, about 2 million cars with up to 9 seats that are not used for transportation business will have their inspection period automatically extended by 6 months, etc.

"Those are the moves and actions of the Government, the Prime Minister and ministries and branches based on practical requirements as well as issues sent by voters and people to the Fifth Session and opinions of National Assembly deputies," said the National Assembly Chairman.

Scene of the questioning session at the 5th Session, 15th National Assembly.

Select question groups from 136 proposed question groups

According to the National Assembly Chairman, with the motto of continuing to innovate the methods and ways of organizing questioning and answering questions, the National Assembly Standing Committee has directed the National Assembly Secretary General and agencies to deploy the preparation work very early so that the selection of questioning groups is thorough, careful, in accordance with legal regulations, closely following the key tasks set out in the Resolution of the 13th National Congress of the Party, resolutions and directives of the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat; closely following practical issues; reflecting the thoughts, aspirations, and wishes of the people and voters.

Based on the complete statistics of information on the responses to questions by Ministers, Heads of sectors and the content of groups of issues questioned during the term of the 15th National Assembly; based on the proposals of the National Assembly delegations on 136 groups of issues related to the management fields of 23 Ministries, ministerial-level agencies and opinions and recommendations of voters and people sent to the 5th Session, the National Assembly Standing Committee selected and submitted 5 groups of issues for the National Assembly to consider and decide on 4 groups of issues and organize questioning during this Session. These are major and important issues, not only necessary and urgent in the short term, but also of strategic and long-term significance; in which, the Ministers of Science and Technology, Transport, and the Ethnic Committee answered questions for the first time at the 15th National Assembly.

Delegates attending the question and answer session.

The success of questioning depends on both the questioner and the respondent.

The National Assembly Chairman emphasized that the fifth session is the first session to implement the new National Assembly Session Regulations (effective from March 15, 2023), acknowledging the improvements that have been tested and proven effective in recent sessions regarding the method of conducting question-and-answer sessions.

Accordingly, the questioning and answering of questions are conducted in the form of quick questions and short answers: National Assembly deputies raise questions for no more than 1 minute; debates for no more than 2 minutes each time; the person being questioned answers for no more than 3 minutes for each question. Government members and relevant sector heads participate in explanations under the direction of the Chair to clarify the questions of National Assembly deputies or directly answer questions in the group of questions raised by National Assembly deputies.

“To ensure the effectiveness of the questioning session, according to the provisions of Article 19 of the National Assembly Session Regulations, the Chairman has the right to request National Assembly deputies to stop questioning or debating, and request the person being questioned to stop answering questions if the time limit has passed; the questioning or debating is not on the right topic or the answering of questions is not on the right focus,” said the National Assembly Chairman.

The National Assembly Chairman suggested that National Assembly deputies consider and choose, each time they question, they should only raise one or at most a few issues so that ministers and industry leaders can hear and understand as quickly as possible.

National Assembly deputies shall only debate with the person being questioned to clarify the issue being questioned, and shall not use the right to debate to raise questions or debate with the National Assembly deputy who has previously questioned them. When multiple National Assembly deputies register to debate on the same issue, the person who raised the question on that issue shall have priority to debate first.

“According to experience, the success of a question-and-answer session depends on both the questioner and the questioner,” said the National Assembly Chairman.

Deputy Prime Ministers and guests attending the question and answer session.

Questioning is a particularly effective form of supervision.

According to the National Assembly Chairman, questioning and reviewing the responses to questions is a particularly effective form of supervision, clearly demonstrating democracy, rule of law, professionalism, publicity and transparency in the activities of the National Assembly; it is an opportunity for voters and people nationwide to evaluate the capacity, responsibility, performance of duties and tasks of National Assembly deputies and those holding positions and titles elected or approved by the National Assembly.

From the beginning of the 15th tenure until before the 5th Session, the question and answer activities were conducted at 3 National Assembly sessions and 3 meetings of the National Assembly Standing Committee; nearly 700 delegates participated in the question and answer sessions; 21 people including the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court, the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme People's Procuracy and 19 members of the Government directly answered the questions of the National Assembly delegates.

In addition, implementing the provisions of Articles 15 and 26 of the Law on Supervisory Activities of the National Assembly and People's Councils, questions that are not included in the group of questions at meetings and sessions have been studied and answered in writing by members of the Government.

On the basis of careful and thorough preparation, with rich practice in the industry, field of work and experience accumulated during the process of working at the National Assembly, the National Assembly Chairman requested that National Assembly deputies continue to promote the spirit of "Dedication - Effort - Proactiveness - Passion - Responsibility" in questioning activities, with the requirement of clear responsibilities and clear solutions.

The National Assembly Chairman also requested that ministers and heads of sectors uphold their sense of responsibility before the National Assembly, voters and people nationwide, clearly explain the causes, responsibilities and remedies, so that the questioning session is truly effective, substantive, in-depth and highly constructive; not only contributing to promptly resolving current and urgent issues, but also identifying and proposing solutions to fundamental and long-term issues, creating substantive changes in each field being questioned.

WIN