Opening of the 36th Session of the National Assembly Standing Committee

The meeting is expected to last for 4 days, reviewing 12 important contents and spending 1.5 days on question and answer sessions.

National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man delivered the opening speech at the meeting. (Photo: DUY LINH)

On the morning of August 19, at the National Assembly House, the 36th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee opened under the chairmanship of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man.

Attending the meeting were Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long, Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Procuracy Le Minh Tri, and representatives of ministries, branches and central agencies.

In his opening speech, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man said the meeting is expected to last 4 days, reviewing 12 important contents and spending 1.5 days on question and answer sessions.

Regarding legislative work, the National Assembly Standing Committee will give its first opinions on three draft laws, including: the Electricity Law (amended); the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Technical Standards and Regulations; and the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Officers of the Vietnam People's Army.

The National Assembly Chairman stated that if these two draft laws are well prepared by the Government and the discussion process at the National Assembly reaches a high consensus, the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Officers of the Vietnam People's Army will be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and approval according to the process at one session and according to the shortened order and procedures. The draft Law on Electricity (amended) will be submitted to the National Assembly for approval at the 8th Session according to the process at one session.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long, Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Procuracy Le Minh Tri and delegates attending the meeting. (Photo: DUY LINH)

The National Assembly Standing Committee also gave opinions on explaining, accepting and revising the draft Law on People's Air Defense based on the opinions of National Assembly deputies at the recent 7th Session. After that, relevant agencies continued to complete and submit it to the Conference of specialized National Assembly deputies for comments (August 27-29), send it to National Assembly delegations and agencies for comments, and submit it to the National Assembly for approval at the 8th Session.

Also at the meeting, the National Assembly Standing Committee will consider the Government's proposal to add two draft laws to the Law and Ordinance Development Program, including: Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance and the Law on Disease Prevention.

"Up to now, the volume of draft laws submitted to the National Assembly at the 8th and 9th Sessions has been very large, therefore, it is recommended that right from this step, it is necessary to carefully consider the necessity of the project, calculate the addition at the appropriate time, to both meet practical requirements and ensure the feasibility of the law and ordinance building program, avoiding the case of including them and then delaying or postponing them when submitting the dossier," the National Assembly Chairman noted.

Regarding supervision work, the National Assembly Standing Committee will spend 1.5 days (all day of August 21 and the morning of August 22, 2024) conducting questioning activities, thereby comprehensively and overall assessing the implementation of the resolutions of the National Assembly Standing Committee on thematic supervision and questioning from the beginning of the 15th National Assembly term to the end of 2023 related to 9 areas: agriculture and rural development; industry and trade; culture, sports and tourism; justice; internal affairs; security, order and social safety; inspection; court; prosecution.

At the end of the questioning session, the National Assembly Standing Committee will vote to pass a Resolution on questioning activities to serve as a basis for agencies to implement and for the National Assembly Standing Committee, National Assembly agencies, National Assembly delegations, and National Assembly deputies to supervise.

In addition, according to the 2024 Supervision Program, the National Assembly Standing Committee will review the report of the Supervision Delegation and adopt the National Assembly Standing Committee's thematic supervision resolution on “Implementation of policies and laws on innovation of the organization and management system, improving the quality and efficiency of operations of public service units in the period 2018-2023”; Review the National Assembly's July 2024 People's Aspirations Work Report as usual.

At the same time, give opinions on the draft Supervision Plan and report outline of the Supervision Delegation of the National Assembly Standing Committee on “Implementation of policies and laws on development and use of human resources to meet the requirements of socio-economic development, especially high-quality human resources”.

During the session, the National Assembly Standing Committee also gave opinions on organizing a National Assembly Forum on supervisory activities.

Stating that this is a new initiative, organized for the first time to meet the requirements of continued innovation to improve the quality and effectiveness of the National Assembly's supervisory activities, the National Assembly Chairman requested the National Assembly Standing Committee to continue to consider and give specific opinions so that the preparation and organization of the Forum can be practical, thoughtful, practice thrift, fight waste, and achieve the highest efficiency.

Regarding some contents under its authority, the National Assembly Standing Committee will consider and decide on the approval of the Prime Minister's proposal on the appointment of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; the addition of the 2024 state budget estimate of the Ministry of Health.

Along with that, the Resolution stipulates a number of contents related to the resolutions of the National Assembly Standing Committee on urban classification, standards of administrative units and classification of administrative units, arrangement of district-level and commune-level administrative units in the period of 2023-2030 to implement the arrangement of urban administrative units in the period of 2023-2025.

The National Assembly Chairman emphasized that this is a key task in 2024 so that in early 2025, we can focus on Party Congresses at all levels; effectively implement Conclusion No. 48 of the Politburo on continuing to reorganize administrative units at district and commune levels in the 2023-2030 period and Directive No. 35 of the Politburo "on Party Congresses at all levels towards the 14th National Congress of the Party".

The National Assembly Chairman also said that at this session, the National Assembly Standing Committee will consider and pass a resolution to generally handle a number of issues arising in the implementation of administrative unit arrangement. Regarding the specific arrangement of localities, when the Government sends the dossier, the National Assembly Standing Committee will arrange time to review it in a concentrated manner, each time considering the arrangement of 10 to 20 localities, avoiding too much dispersion and scattering.

Emphasizing the large amount of work, many difficult, complicated contents, and high requirements, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man asked members of the National Assembly Standing Committee to focus on speaking directly to the point; focus on discussing important issues with different opinions; ensure the progress and quality of the meeting. This is also a step of preparation "early, from afar" to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the 8th Session.

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