The 14th National Assembly (NA) discussed the draft revision of the Law on Education during its ongoing sixth session in Hanoi on November 15. 


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Deputy from Quang Ngai Pham Thi Thu Trang at the meeting


A majority of lawmakers agreed with the bill, the Government’s report on acquiring public feedback on the draft law, and a report on examining the draft law by the NA Committee on culture, education, youth, adolescents, and children. 

Twenty-eight legislators offered opinions about investment in education, incentives for teachers, scholarship and tuition policy, textbooks, the national high school graduation examination, reform in education and training, education quality accreditation, education for the disabled, among others. 

Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha explained in detail some of the issues raised by deputies. 

Concluding the morning session, NA Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong asked the NA Standing Committee to continue directing agencies concerned to acquire public feedback on the draft law. 

Under the chair of NA Vice Chairman Do Ba Ty in the afternoon, the legislature heard a report on lawmakers’ feedback on the draft Law on Protection of State Secrets delivered by members of the NA Standing Committee and head of the NA Committee on National Defence and Security Vo Trong Viet. 

Later, the draft law was adopted with 444 votes in favour, accounting for 91.55 percent of the total. 

Discussing the draft amended Law on Taxation Management, legislators debated the rights and responsibilities of inspection agencies and the State Audit Office of Vietnam for taxation management, the duties of tax payers and tax evasion behaviours, among others. 

Finance Minister Dinh Tien Dung also clarified several issues of concern. 

NA Vice Chairman Phung Quoc Hien asked relevant agencies to collect deputies’ opinions about the bill to submit to the legislature at its seventh session. 

On November 16 morning, the lawmaking body will discuss the Law on Preventing and Combating the Harmful Effects of Alcohol and Beer in its plenary session. In the afternoon, the draft Law on Amendment and Supplements to some articles of the Law on Public Investment will be also tabled for discussion.

Law on protection of state secrets approved

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The National Assembly adopted the Law on Protection of State Secrets with 91.55 percent of deputies voting in favour of the bill on November 15.


Legislators press buttons to vote on the Law on Protection of State Secrets on November 15 

The law consists of five chapters with 28 articles, regulating the principles of state secret protection, international cooperation in the work, prohibited actions, scope of state secrets, and types of state secrets, among others.

According to the law, the scope of state secrets is the range of important information in the 15 fields that haven’t been publicised, and if they are revealed or lost, national interests could be jeopardised.

The law stipulates that the Prime Minister issues the lists of state secrets, and the heads of top agencies compile the list of state secrets within their remits.

The compilers of the state secret lists, except for the Minister of Public Security and the Minister of National Defence, are responsible for sending dossiers to the Ministry of Public Security for verification. After these lists are verified, they will be submitted to the Prime Minister for approval.

The ministers of public security and national defence directly submit the lists of state secrets under their ministries’ remit to the Prime Minister.

The Law on Protection of State Secrets will come into force on January 1, 2020, replacing the Ordinance 30/2000/PL-UBTVQH10 on state secret protection. 

However, the regulations relating to the compilation, verification and issuance of state secret lists, along with stipulations on the protection term and protection term extension will take effect on January 1, 2019.

Lawmakers to consider two bills on November 16

National Assembly deputies will spend the day on November 16 discussing two draft laws, one on preventing the adverse effects of alcohol and the other on adjusting, supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Investment. 

A deputy speaks at the sixth session of the 14th NA 

The bill on preventing adverse impacts of alcohol consumption submitted to the NA’s 6th session has 7 chapters with 38 articles, prescribing measures to reduce the consumption of alcohol, manage alcohol supply, along with responsibilities of agencies, organisations and individuals in preventing and controlling the adverse impacts of alcohol. 

Several stipulations in the bill have been adjusted following discussions at previous sessions of the NA.

The draft revised law on public investment submitted to the NA at this session has also been modified based on opinions of law makers in previous discussions. 

Group discussions earlier focused on the scope of the law, classification of public investment projects, prohibited acts in public investment, the authority to decide public investment, environmental impact assessment during the process of approving investment proposal, the three-year public investment plan, among other issues. 


VNA