The Office of the National Assembly picked out ten prominent events of the parliament in 2017 on the 72th anniversary of the first general elections.

1. Promulgation of important laws, resolutions

The parliament adopted 18 laws in 2017 to continue realising the 2013 Constitution, fine-tune market mechanisms, protect human and civil rights, ensure national security and defence, and prevent corruption and wastefulness.

A number of key laws passed and amended in the last year are the law on public debt management, the law on planning and the law on combating and preventing corruption.

2. Overseeing the implementation of policies on food safety and state administrative machinery reform

Based on the results from the supervision of the implementation of policies and laws on state administrative machinery reform during the 2011-2016, the National Assembly adopted a resolution on continuing to streamline the state apparatus.

The parliament also oversaw the implementation of policies and laws on food safety during the 2011-2016 period and adopted a resolution on stepping up the implementation of policies and law in this field over the next five years.

3. Cooperation with other agencies in social supervision and criticism

The NA’s Standing Committee, the Government and the Vietnamese Fatherland Front (VFF) signed an inter-agency resolution detailing the forms of social supervision and criticism undertaken by the VFF and political, social organisations, helping make this activity to become an important channel in increasing the public’s participation in the nation’s affairs.

4. Adoption of resolutions on important issues

The parliament adopted several resolutions on building a number of sections of the north-south expressway for the 2017-2020 period, site clearance for Long Thanh International Airport, dealing with bad debt at credit institutions and special development mechanisms for Ho Chi Minh City.

5. Greatest ever degree of participation in question, discussion sessions

There were more dialogues and discussions during the plenary sessions of the National Assembly in 2017, with 196 deputies asking questions and another 58 participating in discussions at the 3rd plenary meeting alone.

NA deputies debated not only with ministers but also with other deputies in an open and democratic manner to express and clarify their viewpoints so that the competent agencies had more data to make their decisions.

6. Largest number of plenary meetings broadcast live

The National Assembly broadcast live its activities on radio and television on 11 out of 26 days during the 4th plenary meeting to enable the public to keep abreast of the major issues being deliberated and passed by the law-making body.

7. Personnel work executed strictly and reaches a broad consensus

At the proposal of the Prime Minister, the parliament approved the dismissal of the Transport Minister and Government Inspector General and the consequent nominations for these two posts. The National Assembly also voted to disqualify one deputy and suspend two others for their wrongdoings.

8. Hosting IPU symposium on climate change

Vietnam’s National Assembly successfully hosted a seminar for parliaments in the Asia-Pacific region on responding to climate change - actions of legislators to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) from May 10-13.

Within the framework of the conference, a self-assessment toolkit built by the IPU and the UNDP was launched with comprehensive and specific criteria to help legislatures evaluate their progress and the quality of their implemention of the commitments to achieve SDGs.

9. Vietnam takes chair of Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum

Vietnam’s National Assembly assumed chair of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) for the 2017-2017 tenure from Fiji and is gearing to prepare for the annual meeting of the APPF scheduled to take place from January 18-21 in Hanoi, under the theme “Parliamentary Partnership: Peace, Innovation and Sustainable Development”.

10. National Assembly’s TV channel transferred to NA Office

A television channel dedicated to the National Assembly’s activities was transferred to the National Assembly Office after it was established nearly three years ago and managed by the Voice of Vietnam, the national radio broadcaster.

Nhan Dan