Supplementing over 18 trillion VND of government bond capital for 82 projects

At the Government's request, the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed to allocate over VND18 trillion in government bond capital for the 2014-2016 period to 82 projects that have been reviewed by ministries and localities.

Standing Committee of the National Assembly met on the morning of March 11 (Photo: VNA)

Continuing the 26th session, on the morning of March 11, the National Assembly Standing Committee (NASC) gave opinions on the draft Law on Entry, Exit and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam and gave opinions on the plan to allocate additional government bond capital for the 2014-2016 period for projects expected to be completed in 2014-2015 that need to be reviewed.

Specify the conditions for unilateral visa exemption decisions.

According to the National Defense and Security Committee, by March 6, 2014, the Standing Committee of this Committee had received written comments from 60/63 National Assembly Delegations of provinces and centrally-run cities on the draft Law on Entry, Exit and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam. At this meeting, the National Defense and Security Committee requested the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to give comments on a number of issues with different opinions in the draft Law.

Regarding the authority to unilaterally exempt visas, the draft Law has been revised in the direction of specifying the conditions for deciding to unilaterally exempt visas for a period of time for citizens of a country and assigning the Government to base on that to decide specifically on visa exemptions for citizens of each country, in order to ensure flexibility, suitability to practical situations, meeting foreign affairs, opening and integration requirements. However, Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee Nguyen Kim Khoa said that there are still two types of opinions: The first type of opinion agrees with the revised draft Law; the second type of opinion suggests taking back the provisions of the draft submitted by the Government, according to which, "The Government submits to the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee to decide on unilateral visa exemption for each country" because this is a matter of national sovereignty.

Regarding the issue of temporary residence in industrial parks, export processing zones, economic zones, border economic zones, special administrative-economic units and border areas, the National Defense and Security Committee believes that the residence of foreigners in the above-mentioned areas is a rather complicated issue. According to the provisions of current law, the residence of foreigners in border areas is regulated by the law on national borders. Foreigners residing in industrial parks, export processing zones and economic zones are regulated by the Government's Decree (Decree No. 29/2008/ND-CP dated March 14, 2008 and Decree No. 164/2013/ND-CP dated November 12, 2013). Accordingly, Article 32 of this draft Law has been built on the basis of inheriting the provisions of relevant legal documents.

Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee Nguyen Kim Khoa said that at the end of February 2014, the Standing Committee of this Committee surveyed the Cau Treo border gate economic zone, the Vung Ang economic zone (Ha Tinh) and the Nghi Son economic zone (Thanh Hoa) and found that the provisions in Article 32 of the draft Basic Law are suitable for industrial zones, export processing zones and economic zones (foreigners temporarily residing in guest houses built by contractors or taking advantage of old expert areas to ensure separation from production areas). However, for maritime economic zones and special administrative-economic units, where foreigners temporarily reside is still unclear. “We propose that the Standing Committee of the National Assembly add provisions in Article 32 in the direction that the maritime economic zones are applied as inland border economic zones, because coastal communes are all located in the maritime border area. For special administrative-economic units, this is a new issue that is in the pilot process. We propose that foreigners be allowed to stay temporarily in accommodation establishments but have separate management mechanisms as prescribed by the Government,” emphasized Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee Nguyen Kim Khoa.

In his remarks, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung noted that because the draft Law relates to human rights and citizen rights, it needs to be carefully researched and reviewed in accordance with the spirit of the 2013 Constitution. In addition, the provisions in this Law must also be in the direction of administrative procedure reform.

Supplementing over 18 trillion VND of government bond capital

Also this morning, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly gave opinions on the plan to allocate additional government bond capital for the 2014-2016 period for projects expected to be completed in 2014-2015 that need to be reviewed.

According to Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh, the total number of projects expected to be completed in 2014-2015 that need to be reviewed is 91, including 36 transport projects, 35 irrigation projects, 20 health projects in 2 ministries (Transport, Health) and 23 provinces and cities. According to the plan to review and arrange additional government bond capital, in the period of 2014-2016, 41 projects will be allocated enough capital to complete according to the total investment (Ministry of Transport: 2 projects, Ministry of Health: 2 projects, localities: 37 projects) and 40 projects will complete the main items, basically promoting the project's efficiency. After 2016, only 9 projects will not be allocated additional government bond capital, must temporarily postpone, postpone progress or change investment form.

At the meeting, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly voted unanimously to add over 18 trillion VND in government bond capital for the 2014-2016 period to 82 projects that have been reviewed by ministries and localities. Of which, 1,323 billion VND is allocated to complete 5 projects according to the total investment stipulated in the Resolutions of the National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee (including 350 billion VND allocated to implement phase I of the Project of Replacing sleepers K1, K2, iron sleepers with prestressed sleepers, extending the station line, adding track 3 for stations with only 2 lines on the Vinh - Nha Trang section (the additional capital will be enough for phase I of the Project); 4,362 billion VND is allocated for 22 projects with adjusted cuts and reduced scale in accordance with the additional Government bond capital level for the 2014-2016 period; 8,762 billion VND for 37 projects expected to supplement Government bond capital for the 2014-2016 period without adjusting the total investment level, but the ministries and localities have written commitments to mobilize other capital sources to complete the project on schedule; over 3.6 trillion VND for 18 projects adjusted and reduced investment scale, at the same time committed to mobilizing additional legal capital sources for implementation.

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly also decided not to allocate additional government bond capital for the 2014-2016 period for 9 projects that were temporarily suspended for later processing or investment conversion. For projects implemented by the Ministry of Health with funding sources, the investment projects are mainly funded by the central budget annually as prescribed, socialized capital and revenue from service revenue accounts for a small proportion, the Government commits to allocate additional central budget capital to the Ministry of Health to soon complete the projects, put them into synchronous use, contributing to reducing hospital overload./.

According to the Communist Party of Vietnam