President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee Tran Thanh Man presented a report summarizing public opinions and petitions during the opening of the eighth session of the 14th National Assembly in Hanoi on October 21.

At the meeting (Photo: VNA)

Man said following the seventh session, the Presidium of the VFF Central Committee and the NA Standing Committee collected over 3,500 public opinions nationwide via delegations of NA deputies and VFF chapters at all levels.

According to the VFF leader, voters and people spoke highly of the country’s socio-economic achievements over the past years, including macro-economic stability, high economic growth, low inflation, and improved lives of people.

The new-style rural development and poverty reduction programme has achieved positive results while the country’s politics-society have remained stable, defence-security have been strengthened, external affairs and global integration have been expanded and its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity have been firmly maintained, thus improving Vietnam’s position on the international arena and creating a new driving force to fulfill tasks in 2019 and the following years, he said.

The public put trust on the leadership and drastic directions of the Party and State on the Party building and rectification work, as well as the fight against corruption. The legislature reformed law building and question-and-answer sessions, thus meeting people’s expectations, he said.

Meanwhile, many ministries, agencies and localities have also stepped up administrative reform and streamlined apparatus.

Voters expressed their concern over the impacts of the US – China trade war, complicated developments in the East Sea, and serious violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty, sovereign right and jurisdiction. Corruption, bureaucracy and wastefulness remain while climate change, sea level rise and saline intrusion have hindered agricultural production in the Mekong Delta.

They also pointed to the slow disbursement of public investment, resulting in many works going behind schedule with poor quality.

Due to African swine fever outbreaks, pork supply was affected while several localities culled pigs in an improper way, causing environment pollution. Counterfeits and goods of poor quality and ambiguous origin have also harmed consumers’ trust.

Hailing the Ministry of Education and Training’s education management efforts in localities, voters pointed out that “loopholes” in management of educational establishments remained, especially in non-public schools.

Though the number of tourist arrivals in Vietnam has been on the rise, several areas are developing tourism in an unsustainable way, thus harming the environment and people’s lives, according to the report.

On social security and safety, violence against women and child sex abuse have persisted, while organised crime and crime involving “black credit” and pawn services have still worried the public.

Thousands of people have become victims of complicated scams worth up to trillions of VND. Cyber, gambling and drug crimes increased with the involvement of foreigners and trans-national crimes, the VFF President said.