Conducting the 36th Session on the morning of August 20, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Technical Standards and Regulations.
The Party's viewpoint on promulgating a system of national standards and regulations, meeting integration requirements, serving as a foundation for the application and development of core technologies of the system, of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in production and life; ensuring synchronization and unity in the legal system, overcoming inadequacies and limitations of the current Law on Standards and Technical Regulations.
Up to now, the Government has summarized and evaluated the implementation of the proposal to the National Assembly to amend and supplement a number of articles of the Law on Technical Standards and Regulations.
Strengthening state management of technical standards and regulations
The draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations presented by Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat stated that, in response to the requirements of socio-economic development and international integration, our Party has issued many documents and resolutions directing the institutionalization of the innovation policy in the field of standards and technical regulations. At the same time, the implementation practice in recent times has shown that the current Law on Standards and Technical Regulations has encountered some limitations and shortcomings, requiring amendments to comply with the commitments in the new generation Free Trade Agreement (FTA), meeting the objective requirements of production and business practices in order to enhance national competitiveness and develop a sustainable socio-economic development.
Therefore, it is necessary to amend and supplement the Law on Technical Standards and Regulations to institutionalize the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's policies in the field of technical standards and regulations. Strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of state management activities on technical standards and regulations; ensure that the system of technical standards and regulations effectively serves state management activities, production and business activities of enterprises; ensure safety, hygiene and human health; protect animals, plants and the environment; protect national interests and security, and consumer rights in accordance with the spirit of the 2013 Constitution.
The Draft Law consists of 4 articles. After amendments and supplements, the Law on Technical Standards and Regulations has 6 chapters and 66 articles (1 chapter and 5 articles less than the current Law).
The revised and supplemented contents of the draft Law focus on policy groups, such as: ensuring the promotion of deep international integration and full implementation of international commitments on transparency requirements; promoting the socialization of activities in building, disseminating and applying standards; enhancing the effectiveness of conformity assessment activities...
The report on the review of the draft Law presented by Chairman of the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy said that the Standing Committee of the Committee basically agreed with the necessity of developing the draft Law.
However, many opinions suggested that it is necessary to continue reviewing and fully institutionalizing the Party and State's guidelines and policies, especially Directive No. 38-CT/TW, to reflect in the draft Law. At the same time, it is recommended to amend the provisions in other relevant Laws; review and compare the draft Law with the laws, with the Laws recently passed by the National Assembly or the Law projects being submitted to the National Assembly for consideration to ensure the consistency of the legal system.
Regarding the scope of amendments, the majority of opinions of the Standing Committee agreed with the scope of amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the draft Law with 19 articles of 5 chapters out of a total of 71 articles amended and supplemented. Basically, the amended and supplemented articles and clauses fully reflect the content of 6 policy groups; the core contents of the current Law remain unchanged; the scope of regulation compared to the current Law remains unchanged.
However, some opinions say that after 17 years of promulgation, it is necessary to study and review to comprehensively amend the Law, ensuring it is consistent with the scale of the economy, the actual situation, the current legal system and deep integration, and participation in many FTAs.
Amendments to the Law must be in line with international standards
At the discussion session, the majority of members of the National Assembly Standing Committee affirmed that the Law on Technical Standards and Regulations has a wide scope, relating to the international, national, local, people and business levels and the whole society. However, in the process of socio-economic development and deep international integration, the implementation of the Law still has some shortcomings, so it needs to be amended to be more suitable to reality. In particular, when amending the Law, it must be in line with international standards.
Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee focused on discussing 6 policy groups and 4 general issues submitted by the Government; 12 specific issues raised by the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment in the Verification Report. In addition, members of the Committee also gave their opinions on a number of general issues, the conformity of the draft Law with the Party's policies, the constitutionality, legality, and consistency of the draft Law with the legal system and the Government's report; the compatibility of the provisions in the Law must be consistent with the commitments and international treaties that Vietnam has signed or is a member of on issues related to technical barriers, and new-generation Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). In addition, a number of members of the National Assembly Standing Committee also gave their opinions on the scope, subjects of regulation, amended contents of the draft Law, the practical feasibility and specificity of the provisions and implementation in the draft Law, etc.
Regarding the national standardization strategy (Article 8a), Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh said that the national standardization strategy is a new and important content included in the draft Law. According to the Government's Submission, the report summarizing the implementation of the Law on international standardization has strategic value in the economic policy of each country. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in 2018, the Subcommittee on Standards and Conformity Assessment also encouraged member countries to develop a standardization strategy.
However, in reality, the activities of developing technical standards and regulations in Vietnam in the past have not been planned and implemented in a comprehensive and strategic manner. Ministries and sectors currently develop Vietnamese standards and regulations in a way that they compensate for any deficiencies or, if required by the Government, include them in the plan to develop Vietnamese standards. Therefore, some ministries have proposed plans to develop additional Vietnamese standards that are more numerous than the annual Vietnamese standards plan, and sometimes there are still overlaps and duplicates in the subjects of Vietnamese standards and Vietnamese regulations.
With the above shortcomings, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh requested to clarify the necessity of issuing a national standardization strategy and explain why a standardization strategy was not issued. Because the draft Law has a strategy on standardization but a strategy on standards is not set out.
Affirming that standards and technical regulations are very important in transforming the growth model and restructuring the economy to improve the quality of goods, Chairman of the Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh said that amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations must contribute to improving competitiveness, participating in economic integration, and participating in FTAs.
However, many businesses have reported that some Vietnamese technical standards still have inconsistent regulations, leading to certain difficulties in implementation. Therefore, Chairman of the Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh suggested that the Drafting Committee of the Law project should continue to study and consider this inadequacy in order to make timely amendments. In addition, when developing Vietnamese technical standards and regulations, they must also be consistent with and based on international standards, avoiding costly construction and ineffective application. Because many Vietnamese goods exported to other countries must also comply with the standards and regulations set forth by that country.
Perfecting the Law contributes to protecting the legitimate rights of consumers.
Concluding the discussion session, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai affirmed: The National Assembly Standing Committee highly appreciated the process of preparing the dossier of the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Technical Standards and Regulations; the review report of the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment. To ensure the quality of the draft Law submitted to the National Assembly, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai requested the Government to take into account the opinions of members of the National Assembly Standing Committee and the review agency; at the same time, pay attention to a number of issues:
Continue to review and fully institutionalize the Party's policies, especially Directive 38 of the Secretariat on meeting the requirements of international economic integration, in accordance with international commitments. Supplement and perfect policies and laws on quality measurement standards in a centralized, unified, synchronous, and internationally integrated direction based on modern technical platforms, digital technology, and smart governance models, serving well the application and development of core technologies of the fourth industrial revolution in production and life...
Fully assess the impact of implementing international commitments, specify additional regulations to meet international commitments on technical standards and regulations, regulations on transparency obligations in the Agreements. Carefully review the necessity, specificity, clarity, and consistency with other laws for additional concepts and terms to be explained in current laws. Further research on the protection and preservation of copyright and intellectual property rights for technical standards and regulations; the role and responsibility of agencies, organizations and individuals in developing, appraising, promulgating, promulgating and applying technical standards to ensure appropriate and strict regulations...
Research, absorb, adjust and supplement according to the opinions of the appraisal agency on the responsibility for developing, appraising, announcing and notifying the application of National Standards on the application of shortened procedures and processes. Regulate conformity assessment, assign State management responsibilities to ensure resources for activities and fields of standards, technical regulations and other contents stated in the appraisal report and note to avoid arising costs, conflicts of interest, rights and interests of people and businesses in the development of standards and regulations.
Continue to review to ensure internal consistency of the Law and handle conflicts, overlaps and inadequacies with other laws to ensure consistency and unity of the legal system, especially the four codes and 98 related laws, including the Law on Product and Goods Quality; Law on Science and Technology, Law on Competition, Law on Investment, Law on State Budget and laws being submitted to the National Assembly for amendment such as the Law on Electricity, Law on Pharmacy, Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting and Law on People's Air Defense. Maximize specificity in the contents that have been tested and applied stably in practice, minimize the assignment of the Government and Ministries to carefully review regulations on law application and enforcement provisions to ensure feasibility and compliance with the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents.
Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai also requested the Government to direct the drafting agency and relevant agencies to study and absorb the opinions of the National Assembly Standing Committee, organize more workshops, consult experts, businesses, and social organizations. The Committee on Science, Technology and Environment will officially review and submit to the National Assembly for consideration at the 8th session of the 15th National Assembly.
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