VietNamNet Bridge – National Assembly deputies yesterday agreed that although the draft Law on Household Registration and draft Law on Citizen Identity Card were related, they were for different purposes and implemented differently.

Residents in Ha Noi register for ID cards. National Assembly deputies yesterday asked for a synchronised system to manage household registration, residence registration and citizen ID cards.

They said that household registration was related to citizens' basic rights, while residence registration and citizen ID cards served the management of security and social orders.

However, most of the basic information about citizens in household registrations including certificates of births, marriages, deaths was also on the database for residence registrations and ID cards, so it would be overlapping, wasteful and troublesome if they were managed by the Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Justice at the same time, they said.

Huynh Van Tinh, from the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Tien Giang urged the Government to review and synchronise all regulations in the two draft laws.

He noted that for a long time, the management of household registrations had been carried out in a traditional way with loads of documents, books and paperwork causing numerous problems to citizens as well as management officers.

He urged for a quicker way to build an electronic database to better manage the registration.

Regarding the regulation that allows the People's Committee at the district level to work on foreigner-related household registrations as well as redefine ethnic groups from those above 14, Lu Thi Luu, from the northern province of Lao Cai said that it was unrealistic. She noted that as per the statistics in 2012 from the Ministry of Justice, only 27 per cent of household registration staff nationwide had bachelor degrees in law, 50 per cent other were at intermediate level in law and the remain just had training courses.

"Foreigner-related registrations are very complicated and require an officer to have knowledge in law, IT and foreign languages to take charge," she said.

"As a result, the staff at a district level will hardly meet the demand of the work," she said.

Agreeing with Luu, Nguyen Duc Chung from Ha Noi, said that the law should retain the current regulations that only People's Committees from provincial levels could handle foreigner-related registrations.

Discussing the Law on Citizen ID Card, many deputies expressed concern over the regulation on the issuance of ID cards for those under 14.

Nguyen Thanh Thuy, from the central province of Binh Dinh urged the board that compiled the law to review the impact of the regulation on a group of children under 14. He stressed on the fact that the current management of the group through civil organisations, agencies and schools was already effective.

However, Vu Chi Thuc, from the northern province of Quang Ninh said that it was necessary to issue an ID card right after birth as it is a national database and it should be managed from one's birth to death.

The deputies also worried about the change of the ID card number from the current 9-digit to a new 12-digit one.

Truong Minh Hoang, from the southernmost province of Ca Mau said that it would be a huge waste to change that and would seriously affect 68 million citizens to have all their ID cards changed.

Agreeing with him, Pham Trong Nhan, from the southern province of Binh Duong said that the change should be carefully considered.

"Technically, increasing from 9 digits to 12 digits will cost the storage and make the speed of information access and transfer slower," he said.

Two laws approved

Also yesterday, NA deputies approved the amendments to the Law on Marriage and Family and Law on Bankruptcy.

Under the Law on Marriage and Family, the marriage ages are 20 for men and 18 for women, respectively. Same sex marriages will be forbidden.

The law also sets conditions for surrogacy for humanitarian purposes. It must be done on a voluntary basis by both sides and must have legal documents.

The Law on Bankruptcy regulates the procedures and processes of applying for bankruptcy, defines the responsibilities on properties and measures to preserve properties in the bankruptcy process as well as procedures in resuming business and bankruptcy declaration. The law will be applied to enterprises, co-operatives and co-operative unions organised by law.

The two laws will take effect from January 1, 2015.

VNS/VNN