Strengthening decentralization and delegation of power, in line with the two-level local government model

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh chaired the meeting. Photo: Ho Long

Enhance the initiative of all levels and sectors

Presenting the Draft Law, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang said that the draft Law consists of 2 articles, amending and supplementing 28 articles, clauses and 2 Appendices of the Law on Planning.

Highlighting the new points of the draft Law, Minister Nguyen Van Thang said that in order to complete the planning system, the draft Law adds technical and specialized planning to the planning system; removes technical and specialized planning at the district level to conform to the 2-level local government model; removes regulations on planning of special administrative-economic units due to unclear legal regulations on administrative-economic units as well as the relationship of planning of special administrative-economic units with other plans in the national planning system.

The draft Law also simplifies the planning content to improve the effectiveness and feasibility of the planning. Specifically: amend and supplement the planning content to include only framework regulations of an orientational nature; transfer the list of expected important projects and priority investment projects in the planning to the planning implementation plan, and at the same time decentralize the approval of the implementation plan for national sectoral planning and provincial planning to the Minister and Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

View of the meeting. Photo: Ho Long

To enhance the initiative of all levels and sectors in directing and operating according to Conclusion No. 121-KL/TW of the Party Central Committee, according to the Minister of Finance, the draft Law stipulates the decentralization of the National Assembly's authority to the Government to determine areas requiring regional planning and decide on national marine spatial planning and national land use planning. The Prime Minister's authority is decentralized to the Minister and Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee to decide on the list of priority investment projects in the plan to implement national sectoral planning and provincial planning. The Prime Minister's authority is decentralized to the Provincial People's Council to decide on adjusting the provincial planning for the 2021-2030 period to meet the requirements for administrative unit arrangement.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh delivered his concluding remarks. Photo: Ho Long

Presenting the Report on the review of the draft Law, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai said that the Government's proposal to develop and promulgate the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Planning in a simplified order and procedure at one session is well-founded in order to perfect the system of policies and laws on planning in accordance with the organizational model of the political system after the arrangement and merger of administrative units; promoting decentralization and delegation of power. For contents that still have different opinions and have not been thoroughly researched and evaluated, it is necessary to continue to research, review, evaluate and summarize the practice when comprehensively amending the Law on Planning.

Regarding the planning system, the draft Law has added technical and specialized planning to the planning system but not to the national planning system. However, the Economic and Financial Committee found that this handling is only technical and does not thoroughly resolve the nature of the problem. Therefore, to avoid confusion and different understandings, the Committee proposed to amend in the direction of adding technical and specialized planning to the national planning system and excluding this planning from the scope of regulation and subjects of application of the Planning Law. However, there are opinions suggesting to consider removing technical and specialized planning from the national planning system because this content has been discussed and commented on by the National Assembly at the Eighth Session.

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai presented the Report on the review of the draft Law. Photo: Ho Long

Don't sacrifice quality for speed.

Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee highly appreciated the Standing Committee of the Economic and Financial Committee for coordinating with the Ministry of Finance and relevant agencies to promptly complete the draft Law dossier, meeting the requirements for implementing Conclusion No. 127 of the Politburo on implementing research and proposing to continue to reorganize the apparatus of the political system.

However, the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Planning was proposed by the Government to be considered and approved under a shortened process at one session. Therefore, members of the National Assembly Standing Committee suggested that agencies continue to review and study to complete the draft Law in the coming time.

Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang presents the Draft Law. Photo: Ho Long

Speaking at the meeting, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man emphasized that the Ninth Session will consider and decide on many important issues. Therefore, in the process of completing and revising draft laws and resolutions in the coming time, agencies must fully absorb the spirit of the Resolution of the 11th Central Conference and the conclusions of the General Secretary at the Politburo meetings, especially the spirit of promoting decentralization, local decision, local action, local responsibility.

The National Assembly Chairman also stated that the process of completing the draft laws to be submitted to the National Assembly at the upcoming Ninth Session needs to adhere to a number of principles, including: having a lot of content but ensuring procedural processes; ensuring "soft but tight ties"; ensuring the quality of laws and resolutions. Emphasizing the requirement of ensuring quality, the National Assembly Chairman suggested that agencies continue to review, many channels, many sources of information, experts, scientists, organize seminars and workshops to complete the draft laws and draft resolutions.

“This ninth session is a historic session, the National Assembly will decide on historic issues. Therefore, we must ensure the quality of the contents submitted to the National Assembly. Any content that does not meet quality standards will be postponed for consideration at the next session. For urgent and hot issues, the National Assembly is ready to hold irregular sessions to consider, not to concentrate them in one session without ensuring quality.” Emphasizing this requirement, the National Assembly Chairman suggested that the Ethnic Council and the National Assembly Committees continue to enhance their responsibilities and work at full capacity; the Ministry of Finance - the agency in charge of drafting the Law project, although it has decentralized quite a lot to localities in the past, needs to decentralize even more strongly in the future.

Concluding the discussion, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh said that the relevant agencies need to clearly define the scope and purpose of amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Planning. In particular, it is necessary to focus on two main issues: perfecting the legal system to be consistent with the organizational model after implementing the two-level local government model; promoting decentralization and delegation of power in accordance with the spirit of Resolution of the 11th Central Conference.

According to Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh, the contents and issues that still have different opinions and have not yet created consensus need to continue to be studied, reviewed, and evaluated to summarize the practice when comprehensively amending the Law on Planning, thereby ensuring the highest quality of the draft Law, not ignoring quality for the sake of progress. At the same time, continue to review other laws related to planning to ensure the consistency of the legal system, especially laws with provisions on assessing the conformity of investment projects, production and business activities with planning.

Regarding the criteria and procedures for establishing, appraising, approving decisions or adjusting planning, the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly said that it is necessary to continue reviewing to reduce intermediate steps that may affect the progress of approving and adjusting investment projects and production and business activities; and assess the reasonableness of regulations on the order and procedures for deciding or approving investment policies.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh also suggested that agencies continue to evaluate and reach consensus on removing unnecessary specialized techniques that have not been implemented or are not suitable for practice... Continue to review and remove unnecessary specific contents of national, regional and provincial planning to ensure that they are suitable for the practical implementation of these plans.

Thanh Hai

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/tang-cuong-phan-cap-phan-quyen-phu-hop-voi-mo-hinh-chinh-quyen-dia-phuong-hai-cap-post411339.html