Day: September 13, 2021

National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue’s freshly concluded trip to Europe has helped promote the role of parliamentary diplomacy in boosting socio-economic development and bettering COVID-19 prevention and control, Chairman of the NA Committee for External Relations Vu Hai Ha told the Vietnam News Agency’s reporter.

Hue arrived in Hanoi on September 12, concluding his trip to attend the 5th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament (WCSP5) in Austria and pay a working visit to the European Parliament, Belgium and an official visit to Finland from September 5-11.

While in Austria, besides multilateral activities, the top legislator delivered important speeches at WCSP5 plenary and thematic sessions, showing Vietnam’s stance on international and regional issues as well as its development orientations.

He had 10 sidelines bilateral meetings with important partners such as Russia, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Italy, Mozambique, Cuba, Chile and the UK, during which they discussed measures to achieve post-pandemic socio-economic recovery as soon as possible.

Hue also met with leaders of several United Nations agencies in Vienna who all affirmed that parliament plays an important role in addressing global challenges.

During his trip, the NA Chairman also had meetings with the Presidents of the European Council (EC) and the European Parliament (EP), and leaders of Belgium and Finland.

They all emphasized that the parliamentary relationship is a very important channel, representing the will and aspirations of people, as well as promoting cooperation between governments and connecting solidarity and friendship among the peoples.

The EP President applauded Hue’s proposal to establish a mechanism to strengthen the relationship between the EP and the National Assembly of Vietnam.

Regarding vaccine diplomacy, Ha said that the President of the European Council promised to provide an additional 500 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 to ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, in the coming time.

Belgium and Slovakia also presented 200,000 doses of vaccine and pledged to help transfer millions of doses to Vietnam. Many organizations, businesses and individuals also supported medical equipment and supplies, especially COVID-19 test kits, with a total value of 1.028 trillion VND (45.1 million USD). In addition, a number of contracts related to test kit production, and vaccine research and production have been signed.

Ha also stated that this trip was a very good opportunity for the top legislator to discuss with overseas Vietnamese about policies related to them, affirming that the overseas Vietnamese community is an integral part of Vietnam.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The 15th National Assembly Standing Committee opened its third session on September 13, which is expected to last until September 22.

Opening the session, NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said six draft laws will be tabled for discussion for the first time at this session, which are important to the completion of the legal system and ensuring the system’s consistency, as well as to the implementation of the country’s commitments under signed new generation free trade agreements like CPTPP and EVFTA.

The NA Standing Committee will also perform its supervision function through examining reports on the enforcement of the Constitution, laws and NA resolution, the implementation of the National Target Programme on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous regions in 2021-2030.

The committee will give opinions on a detailed plan on thematic supervision of the National Assembly and the NA Standing Committee in 2022.

Several measures regarding tax reduction and exemption to support enterprises and citizens affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will be submitted to the committee for considering and approving during this session.

After the opening, the committee scrutinised the draft law on insurance business (revised).

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A state-level funeral will be held at the National Funeral Hall, No.5 Tran Thanh Tong street, Hanoi on September 15 for General Phung Quang Thanh, former Politburo member, former Vice Secretary of the Central Military Commission and former Minister of National Defence.

General Phung Quang Thanh passed away after a period of illness at 3:45 am on September 11 at his private home in Hanoi.

He was born on February 2, 1949 in Thach Da commune, Me Linh district, Hanoi (formerly in Vinh Phuc province).

He was a member of the 9th, 10th and 11th Party Central Committee, member of the Politburo of the 10th and 11th Party Central Committee, and deputy of the National Assembly in the 11th, 12th, and 13th tenures. He was awarded the rank of General in July 2007.

His military career was a shining example of heroic fighting spirit, resilience, will and effort to rise up. General Phung Quang Thanh was honoured with the title ‘Hero of the People’s Armed Forces’ and many other noble titles.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Vu held an online talk with Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Singapore Chee Wee Kiong on September 13 to discuss experience in response to COVID-19 pandemic and economic recovery.

At the event, Vu thanked Singapore for offering timely support to Vietnam, especially essential medical supplies, considering it vivid evidence of the strategic partnership between the two countries.

He spoke highly of Singapore’s success in curbing the pandemic, particularly vaccinating over 80 percent of its population to facilitate economic opening and development.

The Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister wished that Singapore would assist in or transfer vaccines to Vietnam as soon as possible.

Chee Wee Kiong underscored the importance of close ties between the two foreign ministries to bolster the Singapore – Vietnam strategic partnership in various areas, including pandemic response, travelling facilitation, opening of the economy and prevention of supply chain disruption.

The two sides discussed Singapore’s experience in policy planning to control the pandemic soon, towards economic recovery and bringing the country to “new normal”.

Chee spoke highly of Vietnam’s efforts and believed that the country will put the pandemic under control, thus facilitating the opening of the two economies and travelling for the two peoples.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The National Assembly Standing Committee on September 13 gave opinions on the Government’s report on the enforcement of Constitution, laws and resolutions of the legislature.

Speaking at the event, Chairman of the NA Committee on Legal Affairs Hoang Thanh Tung said the Government exerted efforts to achieve positive results in the enforcement of Constitution, laws, ordinances and resolutions this year.

Permanent members of the NA Committee on Legal Affairs said the number of issued detailed guiding documents was 15 higher than that recorded last year while the number of delayed documents reduced by 20 from 2020.

They requested thoroughly reviewing data to ensure full and correct statistics of issued and delayed documents.

NA Vice Chairman Nguyen Khac Dinh asked the legislature to pay further attention to checking documents so that they could be issued more quickly with better quality.

He said the NA Standing Committee suggests the Committee on Legal Affairs, together with the Ministry of Justice, the NA Committee on Judicial Affairs and the NA Secretary General, discuss with the Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuracy, to review the implementation of the Resolution No.67 and offer suggestions for implementation next year.

Source: Vietnam News Agency