Continuing the 7th Session of the 15th National Assembly, on the afternoon of May 29, at the National Assembly House, under the chairmanship of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the additional assessment of the results of the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and the state budget in 2023; the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and the state budget in the first months of 2024; and many other important contents. Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai chaired the meeting.
Gaps in food safety management
Concerned about food safety, delegate Nguyen Thi Minh Tam (Quang Binh delegation) cited data that in the first 4 months of 2024, there were 24 cases nationwide with 835 people poisoned (3 people died). "The above data does not include 2 major poisoning cases in May, up to more than 1,000 people poisoned from Bang bread and Shiwon collective kitchen in Vinh Phuc" - the delegate said.
Faced with the current situation of food poisoning cases occurring on a large scale and in diverse forms, public opinion is raising questions about the process of managing and supervising food hygiene and safety. Emphasizing this, the delegate analyzed that street food in Vietnam brings convenience to Vietnamese people, is suitable for many people's budgets, and many eateries and carts possess recipes that create dishes that are more delicious than famous restaurants. And there are up to 5 Vietnamese dishes in the list of top 100 most attractive street foods in Asia.
However, in terms of food hygiene and safety procedures, most of these establishments have committed violations. Typically, Tram Anh chicken rice (Khanh Hoa) and Phuong bread (Hoi An) have food hygiene and safety certificates, but the establishments from which they import raw materials still cannot ensure the traceability of all food products, and these establishments themselves do not keep samples for testing when needed.
The delegate pointed out that, according to Decree 15/2018 of the Government, the subjects that are not subject to the issuance of a Certificate of food safety qualified establishments, notably food production and trading establishments without a fixed location, collective kitchens not registered for food business; street food business establishments... are subject to the management of the industry and trade sector.
From there, the delegate asked, is the management of the industry and trade sector effective? When every day, there are millions of mobile food and beverage businesses, collective kitchens for workers and students are becoming more and more popular? Even if they are managed by food hygiene and safety licenses, when they violate, in addition to suspending operations, after continuing to do business, will these establishments be able to come up with a more hygienic production process? Or are they even willing to abandon their brand and set up a new establishment?
"It is easy to see the gap in food safety management, which directly affects the health and lives of people and tourists; as a country whose main export product is food, Vietnam's reputation with business partners around the world will be more or less affected when the level of food contamination increases" - the delegate commented.
Therefore, the delegate believes that reviewing the food safety management process in the coming time is necessary. At the same time, it is recommended to continue perfecting policies and laws to create a legal corridor for state management of food safety, especially street food. Accordingly, reviewing and increasing the level of penalties for violations in food safety business activities to ensure sanctions are strong enough to deter; Focusing on investing resources, paying attention to human resources for this activity.
Continue to direct relevant ministries and branches to promptly develop application software to manage the traceability of products and the quality of supply of each mobile and street sales establishment... This will facilitate both buyers in tracing and monitoring the origin, reporting to authorities, and facilitate management agencies in handling violations.
Special attention should be paid to implementing solutions to stimulate consumption.
Expressing her opinion, delegate Tran Thi Hong Thanh (Ninh Binh delegation) suggested that the Government should pay special attention to implementing solutions to stimulate consumption, creating a clear change in consumer demand, both reasonable public spending and private consumption. Accordingly, delegate Tran Thi Hong Thanh proposed 03 solutions that need to be focused on implementing.
First of all, according to the delegate, the current public debt safety indicators are low and safe. It is recommended that the National Assembly and the Government continue to promptly consider policies to exempt, extend, and reduce taxes and fees for businesses and people similar to 2023, including reducing VAT by 2% until the end of 2024, reducing registration fees for domestically produced cars to both stimulate consumption and increase sales revenue, thereby increasing tax revenue. Promote support for businesses to green transformation, invest in science and technology, research and training to serve semiconductor chip production, and energy conversion.
For components with low disbursement rates in the recovery program, it is necessary to promptly study and have specific plans to transfer these remaining components to support local businesses in green transformation, energy conversion, chip production, carbon credit market development, social housing, and sustainable tourism development.
Along with that, there are policies and solutions to stimulate consumer credit in a reasonable way to both stimulate personal consumption and reduce black credit.
The second issue proposed by delegates is to drastically improve the business investment environment, stimulate private investment, and increase the confidence of businesses and investors. It is recommended that the Government direct ministries, branches, and localities more drastically in implementing Resolution No. 02 on improving the business investment environment and enhancing Vietnam's competitiveness to make a breakthrough. Along with that, it is necessary to study and propose legalization of the protection of officials, who dare to think, dare to innovate for the common good.
In addition, delegate Tran Thi Hong Thanh hopes that the Government will have a more specific assessment of the business situation when in the first 4 months of the year, the number of businesses withdrawing from the market was greater than the number of businesses entering the market, so that appropriate response solutions can be found, substantially improving this figure; Assess indicators such as infrastructure innovation, including digital infrastructure, the exact scale of the digital economy, and the green economy to have stronger, more appropriate, and better policies for improvement.
The delegate also suggested promoting the role of economic locomotives in developing consumption. "This is probably not a new story, but it is urgent in the context of some growth drivers or key economic regions having modest growth rates, reducing the role and contribution to the overall growth of the economy," the delegate emphasized.
Therefore, delegate Tran Thi Hong Thanh suggested that the Government pay more attention to effectively implementing regional linkage mechanisms and policies and specific mechanisms according to the Politburo's resolutions. Thereby, better promoting the role of economic locomotives, key economic zones, potential areas, increasing the ability to lead and spread to other regions and areas in pioneering the development of private consumption and investment./.
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