The 10th session of the 14th National Assembly Standing Committee commenced in Hanoi on May 15.

NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said the three-day sitting aims to prepare for the third meeting of the 14th legislature.

Legislators will give opinions about the bill on the amendments and supplements to some articles of the Penal Code, the draft resolution on handling bad debts of credit organizations, and the State budget estimate 2015.

They will also elaborate about the ratification of a treaty supplementing the Border Delimitation Treaty between Vietnam and Laos regarding the revision of the starting point of the two countries’ border line, as well as the Protocol on the two nations’ border line and border markers.

Lawmakers are discussing a report supplementing the evaluation of implementation of socio-economic development plan and State budget in 2016 and reviewing the first months in 2017; a report on the inspection of settlement of voters’ petitions sent to the second session of the legislature; a draft report summarizing opinions and recommendations of voters and the public; and a proposal on separating the compensation and resettlement relating to ground clearance from the Long Thanh international airport project and make it a sub-project.

The legislature will also mull over the Government’s draft resolution stipulating some specific finance-banking mechanisms and policies for the northern port city of Hai Phong.

Following the opening, the committee looked into the report supplementing the evaluation of implementation of socio-economic development plan and State budget in 2016 and reviewing the first months in 2017. 

The report, submitted by the Government, affirmed that the socio-economic situation in the first four months of 2017 was significantly improved, with stable macro economy and curbed inflation.

The index of industrial production (IIP) posted a year-on-year increase of 5.1 percent, far below the growth recorded in the same period in 2016 (7.4 percent) but higher than that of 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2017.

The total retail sale and service revenues were estimated to increase by 9.6 percent against the same period last year. 

The number of international tourists to Vietnam surged 32 percent to reach 4.3 million in January-April.

In the four-month period, the country had 39,580 newly-established businesses with total registered capital of 369.6 trillion VND (16.6 billion USD), a year-on-year rise of 14 percent and 48.9 percent, respectively.

Positive outcomes were also seen in other fields such as education-training, science-technology, labour, social welfares, healthcare, culture, sports, and communication.

The Government also reported that the adjusted evaluation of socio-economic performance for 2016 did not differ much from the estimated figures presented to the 14th NA’s second session. It re-affirmed that in 2016, 11 out of the 13 socio-economic development targets were achieved and surpassed. The country failed to reach the goals of gross domestic product (GDP) and export revenue growth.

NA Vice Chairman Phung Quoc Hien urged the Government to further clarify issues raised by lawmakers such as the equitisation of State-owned enterprises, environmental pollution and climate change, agricultural and rural development, labour, value added tax refund, and official development assistance (ODA) management.

The Government should pay heed to the implementation of important tasks and projects such as the North-South expressway and flood prevention in Ho Chi Minh City as well as the detailed allocation of mid-term public investment capital.

The NA Standing Committee basically approved the groups of solutions proposed by the Government to boost socio-economic development but required more specific measures to deal with several problems including the dropping oil prices, difficulties in the consumption of agricultural products, the completion of socialist-oriented market economy institutions, among others.

VNA