Cannot make laws like 'cutting a plow in the middle of the road'

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung expressed his frustration at the situation where the draft law had been voted on by the Government, but when presented to the National Assembly Standing Committee, ministries and branches still expressed different opinions.

Minister Nguyen Chi Dung is upset that the draft law has been approved by the Government but representatives of ministries and branches still have different opinions - Photo: National Assembly Portal

This is a notable development in the working session this morning (January 10) of the National Assembly Standing Committee when discussing the draft Law on Planning.

"Only care about affecting your work"

Representatives of the ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Natural Resources and Environment, and Construction expressed their opinions and concerns about the removal or renaming of some types of planning in the draft law.

“Our way of making laws has been discussed a lot and opinions have been collected, and the Government members have voted to approve them before submitting them to the National Assembly. So other opinions (of ministries and branches) today are only for reference, not to come here and say the opposite, which is against the Government's working principles, and that would be like cutting a plow in the middle of the road,” said Minister Nguyen Chi Dung.

Mr. Dung is the head of the drafting committee of the Law on Planning, the person representing the Government to submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee for comments on the content of this law project.

“At that time, I directly worked on it and understood that public opinion was very supportive of this law. I did not think that today the ministries would say the opposite like I heard a few months ago. Before a change to suit the trend, there will definitely be conflicts with the functions and tasks of a certain agency or group of people, which may slightly affect their work, so they do not want to change,” Mr. Dung analyzed.

He said that due to the issue of interests, when making laws, "everywhere, people only focus on whether it affects their work or not, and rarely approach the direction of how such changes will benefit society and the people." For example, many ministries and branches want to keep planning under their authority to be established and managed.

“Product planning should be eliminated and replaced with standards to reduce requests. Who would plan for control points and quarantine of animals and plants? I think that when there is an epidemic, a quarantine station should be set up and when the epidemic is over, it should be dismantled. Why keep a huge station at the beginning of national highways? We make this Law on Planning, it is almost a revolution,” Minister Dung affirmed.

National Assembly approves important plans

According to the report of the Economic Committee (the agency examining the draft law), through discussions in the National Assembly, many opinions said that it is necessary to stipulate that the Government submit to the National Assembly for approval the national master plan, national marine spatial plan and land plan because these are particularly important plans, affecting the overall development of the whole country.

“The Standing Committee of the Economic Committee would like to accept and regulate the national master plan, marine spatial planning, and national land use planning approved by the National Assembly. This regulation is also consistent with the National Assembly's authority to decide on the state budget to organize the implementation of the planning as prescribed in Article 19 of the State Budget Law and the regulations on the National Assembly's authority to decide on policies for public investment programs and projects in the Law on Public Investment,” the report said.

Chairman of the Nationalities Council Ha Ngoc Chien said that in theory, every industry must have a plan, but recently, poor management has led to plans blooming like flowers, chopping everything up.

“Now there must be a national master plan so that industry plans, product plans, etc. must comply. This law stipulates master plans and planning principles with the aim of not allowing one plan to overlap another, conflict with each other, or destroy other plans.”

“This law must overcome the overlap and lack of connection between planning, which causes waste and contradictions. For example, this province invests in building a seaport but does not connect with the neighboring province. The two provinces are close to each other, but both have airports and seaports, so it is very wasteful,” said National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

Concluding the meeting, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Phung Quoc Hien requested that the drafting agency, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, continue to revise the draft law to submit to the conference of specialized National Assembly deputies for discussion in the coming time.

Mr. Hien noted that the drafting agency should continue to seek opinions and discuss with relevant ministries and branches so that the draft content can achieve higher consensus.

According to Tuoi Tre