General Secretary To Lam said that among the three major bottlenecks facing Vietnam today — institutions, infrastructure, and human resources — institutions are the “bottleneck of bottlenecks.” Therefore, to meet the country’s development requirements in the new era, alongside fundamentally reforming legislative work, it is also necessary to strengthen power control in lawmaking, tighten discipline and administrative order, enhance accountability, particularly that of heads of agencies and organizations, and resolutely combat corruption, negative practices, and “group interests.”
With the view that lawmaking must place people and businesses at the center and proactively identify and swiftly remove “bottlenecks,” General Secretary To Lam, the Party’s highest-ranking leader, said that aligning the Party’s aspirations with the people’s aspirations in pursuit of a prosperous and happy nation is the ultimate goal of the new era — an era of national rise.
General Secretary To Lam’s direction to remove the “bottleneck of bottlenecks” in lawmaking is regarded as a breakthrough in strategic vision. This important direction and broad vision from the Party’s top leader demonstrate that only fundamental reform of legislative work can create a breakthrough in institutions, enabling the country to move confidently into a new era — an era of national rise.
When people and businesses are placed at the center of every policy decision, it is when the Party’s aspirations truly converge with the people’s aspirations in the shared pursuit of building a prosperous nation.
Since the beginning of the current term, the National Assembly has passed 43 laws and more than 60 resolutions, while the National Assembly Standing Committee has issued 45 resolutions and three ordinances. During the ongoing eighth session, the National Assembly is expected to pass another 15 bills and three legislative resolutions, and give opinions on 13 draft laws. These include one law amending three laws in the investment sector and another amending seven laws concerning finance and asset management, as well as new legislation aligned with development trends, such as the Data Law and the Digital Technology Industry Law.
In particular, for bills submitted by the Government to the National Assembly for the first time at the eighth session, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, during the review process, directed that “laws should only stipulate framework and principle-based provisions, while matters that are subject to frequent changes in practice should be delegated to the Government and local authorities to regulate, ensuring flexibility in administration. The activities of the National Assembly must never be overly bureaucratized, nor should provisions of decrees and circulars be incorporated into laws.” Following this direction, the draft Law on Teachers was reduced from the initial 71 articles to 45, while still preserving the bill’s core principles. Meanwhile, the initial draft of the amended Law on Chemicals, submitted by the drafting agency with 11 chapters and 96 articles, has now been streamlined to nine chapters and 89 articles.
The chemical industry is characterized by large-scale industrial projects that require substantial investment. Therefore, if policies are inconsistent and standards and technical regulations are not clearly defined, businesses could suffer significant losses. During the consultation process on the draft amended Law on Chemicals, businesses expressed concerns about the safety distance requirements, particularly those relating to residential areas, as stipulated in Article 62, Chapter VI. If the law is implemented in its current form, businesses could face difficulties as they may be required to relocate their factories.
In its report on the review and completion of the draft law, the Ministry of Industry and Trade affirmed that it would study amendments in the direction of not applying the safety distance requirements to existing businesses already in operation. In practice, the process of drafting the amended Law on Chemicals has demonstrated clear innovation. Following multiple rounds of consultation and legislative review, the draft law has been reduced by two chapters and seven articles compared with the initial version. This reform has also been recognized and highly appreciated by experts.
Experts also stressed the need to further improve the quality and capacity of legislative drafting teams and to conduct thorough assessments of policy impacts. At the same time, promoting innovation requires framework legislation. Overly detailed laws, by contrast, can undermine flexibility in administration. Therefore, matters falling under the Government’s authority should not be stipulated in laws. Instead, legislation should be concise and specific without being overly detailed. This is also one of the requirements set out by the National Assembly Chairman in his October 29 document on renewing thinking in legislative work, further improving the quality of laws, and accelerating the drafting and promulgation of laws and resolutions by the National Assembly.
National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Quang Huan, a member of the National Assembly Committee on Science, Technology and Environment, shared his views with National Assembly Television on this issue. Watch the video below for more details:
Source: Vietnam National Assembly Television