The National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (centre) chaired the closing meeting of the Standing Committee in Hanoi on July 12. (Source: VNA)

The National Assembly Standing Committee's (NASC)13th session closed yesterday after two days of scrutinising social-economic issues, including a change to the forest land-use laws.

Under the chairmanship of National Assembly Chairman Vương Đình Huệ, the NASC summarised the NA’s third session and gave initial comments on the preparation for the fourth session.

According to the Chairman, the fourth session is expected to last 22 days. The preparatory session is scheduled to open on Thursday, October 20 and close on Friday, November 18 this year.

In the fourth session, the NA will consider and approve six bills and one draft resolution, and give opinions on seven laws.

Also at this session, the legislators will discuss socio-economic issues, state budget, supervision and other important issues.

Speaking at the closing meeting, the NA Secretary-General Bùi Văn Cường said: “To continue to improve the effectiveness and quality of discussions, the Ethnic Council and the NA’s Committees should carefully consider the contents under their responsibilities to propose appropriate time-tables and method for each meeting.”

Secretary-General Cường also proposed the NASC consider and organise a meeting of full-time NA deputies in the first week of September to give comments on several law projects that had got many different opinions.

Also, the Standing Committee of the Ethnic Council and other committees have to propose the contents to be discussed at the meeting to soon develop an organisational plan, Cường said.

Meanwhile, the Chairwoman of the NA Judiciary Committee Lê Thị Nga noted that the fourth session, which took place at the end of the year, was a lot of work and there were very difficult law projects.

"Therefore, we had to prepare early to effectively discuss issues and give proper comments and opinions to make meetings successful,” Nga said.

The NA Education Committee’s Chairman Nguyễn Đắc Vinh said that Law on Land was the most important, despite its complexity, so it is necessary to prepare carefully and mobilise a wide range of participants to maximise cooperative intelligence to build the law.

The NA Chairman emphasised that success depends on the process of preparing early and from afar, and proposed to urgently finalise the initial plan of the meeting to inform all committees and deputies to take the initiative in the upcoming meeting.

The year-end session will focus on legislative work, so it is necessary to organise talks and seminars between the agencies for evaluating and drafting, and the meeting of full-time deputies to get opinions on the contents to be submitted to the NA, especially for difficult law projects such as the amended Land Law, the chairman said.

He also noted the completion of reports on the content of supreme supervision and reminded the Economic Committee to prepare for the Việt Nam Economic Forum in 2022.

Deputies must also keep a close eye on life developments to prepare for the 'Q and A' session at the NASC meeting next month and the upcoming fourth NA session, he said.

Assessing the results of the NA third session, Cường said: “After 19 days of working with a spirit of positivity, democracy and high responsibility, the third session of the 15th National Assembly completed the entire programme.”

“The meeting was held in the context that the Covid-19 pandemic was basically under control,” the secretary-general said.

In this session, the National Assembly passed five laws and 17 resolutions, gave initial comments on six other bills and reviewed many other important reports. Laws and resolutions were approved with a very high approval rate.

During the session, in response to practical requirements, the NA promptly adjusted and supplemented the programme's contents, as well as increased the time of live broadcast of several discussion sessions on important law projects that directly related to people’s rights and interests. This will ensure publicity, transparency and create favourable conditions for the people and voters to supervise NA activities, he said.

The participation of representatives, from the people's councils and committees of provinces and cities, in the supreme supervision session contributed to strengthening the relationship between the NA and local elected bodies, as well as improving the quality and promoting experience sharing among elected bodies in general, he added.