VietNamNet Bridge – Lawmakers backed the Government’s proposal to allocate more than VND5.524 trillion (US$263 million) in Government bonds to important projects for the ministries of transport, health and agriculture and rural development during the 2012-15 period.

More than VND927 billion ($44 million) of the total was allocated to the three ministries’ 2012 projects during the 15th session of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee, which ended on Wednesday, Feb 26.

The transport ministry received money for repairing roads in Nam Dan and Tan Ky districts of Nghe An Province and National Road 14C in Kon Tum Province. The health ministry’s funds went to hospitals treating cancer in Tan Trieu and facilities for tropical diseases, pediatrics and cancer in Ha Noi, as well as the Viet Nam-Thuy Dien hospital in Uong Bi Town in Quang Ninh Province. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development received funding for the Do Diem water sluice and Nghen River canal system in Ha Tinh Province.

There was widespread consensus that all of the above projects needed capital, that priority should be given to the most urgent and that the funding process should be closely supervised by the National Assembly and its Finance and State Budget Committee.

Discussing the revised and amended residence law on the same day, many deputies agreed that the law should be improved so people could not take advantage of legal loopholes to register for permanent residence in inner cities or provinces - a situation that would cause unbalanced population distribution and create pressures on infrastructure, transport, schools, hospital, electricity and water supply.

The bill, which is expected to be adopted at the fifth session of the National Assembly in May, would allow citizens who legally own houses or have lived in a certain city for three years to register for permanent residence.

Source: VNS