At its first sitting, the 16th National Assembly will elect key state leaders, including the National Assembly Chairperson, the State President and the Prime Minister. The oath of office will be administered only once, after all positions are consolidated.

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Monday afternoon gave its second round of opinions on preparations for the first session of the 16th National Assembly.

Secretary-General and Chairman of the National Assembly Office Le Quang Manh said the upcoming sitting is expected to deliberate and decide on three major groups of issues.

Specifically, the legislature will conduct organizational and personnel work; consider and adopt 11 draft laws and normative resolutions. It will also review and decide on four groups of socio-economic, state budget and supervisory matters. In addition, nine groups of issues will be submitted in report form for deputies’ independent study.

The proposed agenda will be supplemented with two additional draft laws and normative resolutions, including the revised Capital Law and a resolution on coordination mechanisms and special policies to improve the efficiency of preventing and resolving international investment disputes.

At the same time, four items are expected to be withdrawn from the agenda: the Law amending and supplementing several articles of the Law on Real Estate Business; the Law amending and supplementing several articles of the Housing Law; the Law on Procedures for Promulgation of Administrative Decisions; and adjustments to the National Land Use Planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050.

Regarding the schedule, the Secretary-General said the National Assembly is expected to hold a preparatory session on the afternoon of Sunday, April 5, officially open on the morning of April 6, and close on April 25.

The sitting will take place in two phases. The first phase, from April 6 to 11, will focus primarily on organizational and personnel matters at the beginning of the session. During this phase, the Assembly will also hear submissions and reports, conduct group and plenary discussions on several draft laws and resolutions, deliberate on the National Assembly’s 2027 supervision program, and discuss socio-economic and state budget issues in group meetings.

The second phase, from April 20 to 25, will see deputies hear submissions and reports and debate the remaining draft laws and resolutions; hold plenary discussions and vote on socio-economic and state budget matters; and pass the approved laws and resolutions.

An eight-day recess between the two phases is planned to allow drafting agencies to finalize documents for submission to the Assembly.

Speaking on the session’s agenda, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung proposed adding the Law amending and supplementing several articles of the Law on the State Bank of Vietnam and the Law on Anti-Money Laundering to the program. These drafts are currently being circulated for comments among Cabinet members, with dossiers largely completed.

The Deputy Prime Minister also proposed supplementing three reports for deputies’ independent study related to railway development: a report on the implementation of National Assembly resolutions concerning the North-South high-speed railway project; a report on the implementation of the investment policy for the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway line; and a report on piloting several specific and special mechanisms and policies to develop the urban railway network systems in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The Government has also proposed adding a report on public borrowing and debt repayment for the 2026-2030 period to the first session’s agenda. The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the Government is working intensively to complete the remaining draft laws in time for submission.

Regarding personnel work, Chairman of the Committee for Deputy Affairs Nguyen Huu Dong said that under the law, results are to be announced on March 25, but efforts will be made to publish the list of those elected to the 16th National Assembly on the morning of March 23.

The Committee has proposed that the first session not organize personnel discussions within delegations in order to save time. The personnel process is expected to be completed in about three days, instead of four to five days if delegation meetings are held. Deputies’ opinions will be sought on this proposal.

Concluding the meeting, National Assembly Chairperson Tran Thanh Man said the Standing Committee agreed to convene the first session, with the preparatory sitting to be held on the afternoon of April 5.

On personnel matters, he noted that the Assembly will seek deputies’ views on whether to conduct delegation-level discussions on personnel as in previous sessions. It is also expected that live television and radio broadcasts will begin from the moment draft resolutions on the election of the National Assembly Chairperson, the State President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court are presented, before the oath-taking ceremony.

He confirmed that this time there will be no double oath-taking, as the first session of the 16th National Assembly is being convened nearly three months earlier than in previous terms.

Tran Thuong