Announcement of the President's Order on 6 new laws

The Office of the President held a press conference to announce the President's Order on promulgating 6 laws taking effect in 2018 and from the beginning of 2019.

On the morning of December 14, at the Presidential Palace, the Office of the President held a press conference to announce the President's Order on promulgating a number of Laws passed by the National Assembly at the 4th Session of the 14th National Assembly.

Press conference to announce the President's Order on promulgating the Law

At the press conference, authorized by the President, Mr. Giang Son, Permanent Deputy Head of the Office of the President, announced the President's Order on promulgating 6 laws passed by the National Assembly at the 4th session, including: Forestry Law, Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Credit Institutions, Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Representative Agencies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Abroad, Fisheries Law, Law on Public Debt Management and Law on Planning.

Some of the promulgated laws have many notable new points such as: The Forestry Law (effective from January 1, 2019) has expanded the scope of regulation towards linking the chain of forestry activities from management, protection, development, forest use, business, processing and trade of forest products. Clearly showing that forestry is a specific economic-technical sector, including all activities associated with the production of goods and services related to forests.

The Forestry Law has institutionalized the forest ownership regime according to the provisions of the 2013 Constitution; Stipulating 2 groups of forest ownership forms: forests owned by the entire people with the State as the representative owner, including natural forests, planted forests invested by the State, which have been allocated or not allocated to organizations, households, individuals, and residential communities; forests owned by organizations, households, individuals, and residential communities, including dragon forests invested by organizations, households, individuals, and residential communities; receiving transfers, gifts, and inheritance of forests from other forest owners according to the provisions of law. Innovating forestry policies, not regulating forest allocation with forest use fees but replacing it with the form of forest leasing.

The Fisheries Law stipulates fishing quotas and allowable fishing output for some migratory fish species and fish species with schooling habits. This is a step forward compared to the 2003 Fisheries Law to comply with international laws on the protection and conservation of aquatic resources. License quotas are announced and adjusted every 60 months. Regarding fishing vessel management, management is changed from capacity (CV) to management based on the maximum length of the vessel. Fishing vessels with a maximum length of 6 meters or more participating in fishing must have a license, fishing vessels with a maximum length of 12 meters or more must be inspected, fishing vessels with a maximum length of 15 meters or more must install navigation equipment according to regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

For facilities that build and convert fishing vessels, the Law stipulates the conditions of the facility and must be certified by a competent authority before operating. When building and converting fishing vessels, there must be written approval from a competent authority. This Law takes effect from January 1, 2019.

The Law on Planning clearly stipulates the requirements, principles and main contents of planning types in the direction that the lower the planning level, the more detailed it is, thereby ensuring the effectiveness and feasibility of planning, avoiding overlap, contradiction and duplication between planning, contributing to improving the quality of planning.

To ensure objectivity, science, independence and enhance the responsibility of leaders in directing and operating, the Law clearly stipulates that the Government directs the organization to develop national master plans, national marine spatial plans, national land use plans and regional plans. Ministries and ministerial-level agencies organize the development of national sectoral plans. People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities organize the development of provincial and municipal plans under their management authority.

The Law on Public Debt Management (effective from July 1, 2018) defines the powers and responsibilities of public debt management agencies according to the principle of state unification of public debt, assigning one agency, the Ministry of Finance, to be primarily responsible for unified public debt management, strengthening the authority of the National Assembly and the Government, increasing the authority of collectives, and limiting the authority of individuals. Linking the responsibility of collectives and individuals with the responsibility of managing, mobilizing, using borrowed capital and repaying public debt.

Compared with the 2009 Law on Public Debt Management, local government debt management is strictly regulated, clearly defining the responsibilities, borrowing and debt repayment conditions of local governments; ensuring consistency and synchronization with relevant laws, especially the 2014 Law on Public Investment and the 2015 Law on State Budget.

The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Credit Institutions (effective from January 15, 2018) adds provisions on applying early intervention measures to promptly handle credit institutions showing signs of weakness but not yet at the level of requiring special control in order to limit the emergence of new weak credit institutions and foreign bank branches.

The Law provides for transitional handling of credit institutions that have been under special control before the effective date of the Law, such as: handling mechanisms in case of amendments, supplements or replacements, and new construction of handling plans for commercial banks that have been compulsorily purchased, and principles for transferring these banks to other credit institutions and investors.

The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Representative Agencies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Abroad (effective from July 1, 2018) stipulates a number of new regimes and policies, including: ensuring travel expenses for members of representative agencies and their spouses sent on business trips in case of funerals; supporting part of tuition fees in the host country and the cost of purchasing medical insurance for minor children accompanying members of representative agencies.

Adding some of these policies is necessary to create conditions for members of representative agencies to work with peace of mind, demonstrating the humane policies of the Party and State./.

According to VOV