The 4th session of the 18th Nghe An Provincial People's Council conducted a questioning session with 2 department directors.

Director of Nghe An Department of Natural Resources and Environment Hoang Quoc Viet will answer questions about State management in the field of minerals in the province.

Overview of the discussion session in the hall on the morning of December 8. Photo: Thanh Cuong

ActivitiesMineral exploitation has made an important contribution to the overall economic development of the province. However, according to the assessment, there are still many problems in this field, especially the situation of illegal mineral exploitation that tends to be complicated in many localities with many different types of minerals such as: landfill, sand, gravel, white stone, ... causing resentment among the people, loss of revenue for the State budget, environmental pollution, and degraded traffic infrastructure.

Through review, from 2017 to present, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment has advised the Provincial People's Committee to revoke 08 mineral exploitation licenses (3 licenses were revoked in 2018, 3 licenses were revoked in 2019 and 2 licenses were revoked in 2021) due to failure to fully perform the obligations as prescribed by the Law on Minerals.

Since the beginning of 2020, Nghe An Provincial Police and other units and localities have conducted 1,003 inspections; detected and handled 758 cases, including: prosecuting 9 cases, 11 defendants; administratively sanctioning 748 cases with a total amount of more than 3.4 billion VND. In particular, the prosecution of 1 case and defendants in the large-scale white marble mining case in Quy Hop district has had a strong impact in deterring and preventing crimes in this field.

In Decision No. 3892/QD-UBND dated October 21, 2021, the Provincial People's Committee established an interdisciplinary delegation to inspect the compliance with the law in mineral activities of 13 enterprises and the responsibilities of the District People's Committees (Nghia Dan, Quy Hop, Tan Ky, Nam Dan) in the state management of minerals in the province, chaired by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment. The delegation is conducting inspections of enterprises in the province according to regulations.

To date, Nghe An province has 254 valid mineral exploitation licenses, of which 61 licenses are issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; 193 licenses are issued by the Provincial People's Committee.

To make questioning and answering questions most effective, the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial People's Council recommends that the questioner should not spend more than 2 minutes for each question and the respondent should not spend more than 5 minutes for each answer.

The content of the questioning and answering questions must be clear, focused, and closely follow the group of issues; especially, increasing debate to clarify the issues; frankly pointing out limitations and weaknesses, requesting clarification of responsibilities, as well as proposing solutions and plans to overcome them; thereby also suggesting and supplementing solutions to strengthen State management in the areas being questioned.

The second content selected for questioning at this Session is the implementation of policies to support workers and employers facing difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the work of creating jobs for workers in Nghe An province due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Nghe An Doan Hong Vu will answer questions on this content.

Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Hoang Quoc Viet speaks at the discussion session in the hall on the morning of December 8. Photo: Thanh Cuong

According to statistics, in 2021, Nghe An had more than 1.9 million workers. According to reports from districts, cities and towns, there are more than 256,000 citizens and workers of Nghe An province living, studying and working in provinces and cities across the country.

Of which, people of working age account for about 64.4%, mainly young workers, concentrated in the age group of 15-40, working in factories, industrial parks, economic zones, export processing zones in fields such as electronics, garment, leather shoes or freelance in large provinces and cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang...

The fourth wave of Covid-19 has had a profound impact on socio-economic activities, putting enormous pressure on job creation for workers. The number of workers who have lost their jobs or have temporarily stopped working has increased significantly.

In particular, from April to October 2021, the wave of labor migration from areas with Covid-19 epidemic to the province was very large. According to statistics, 99,957 people from areas with Covid-19 epidemic returned to the locality, of which, the number of people of working age at the time of statistics (October 31, 2021) was 75,858 people, accounting for 75.89% of the total number of citizens returning to their hometowns.

Of the total 75,858 workers who have returned to their hometowns, 45,292 (registered with districts and communes) have a need for employment (accounting for 59.7% of workers returning to their hometowns); 30,566 workers want to stay in their hometowns to work for themselves or are not ready to return to their previous jobs (accounting for 40.3% of workers returning to their hometowns).

Speaking at the opening of the question and answer session, comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council emphasized that this was the first question and answer session of this term.

In preparation for the questioning session, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council received 29 proposed questions and decided to select the above two issues for questioning and answering.

In particular, regarding the State management of minerals in the province, there have been changes in recent times; however, there are still many shortcomings, problems, and limitations, causing loss and waste of resources, negative impacts on the environment, damage to traffic infrastructure; illegal exploitation, violations causing public outrage. Therefore, questioning is necessary to find solutions to overcome the problems, meeting the requirements and demands of voters and people of the province.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council delivered the opening speech of the question and answer session. Photo: Thanh Cuong

The second group of issues is the implementation of policies to support workers and employers facing difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the work of creating jobs for workers affected by the pandemic. This is a very topical issue, deeply affecting people's lives.

Therefore, through questioning to evaluate and perceive correctly and accurately the current situation, shortcomings and limitations, in order to have solutions to overcome and remove difficulties for workers and employers and ensure social security work in the province.

Provincial Party Secretary and Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Thai Thanh Quy emphasized that, in addition to the two directors of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs directly answering questions, the Vice Chairmen of the Provincial People's Committee in charge of sectors and fields, department directors, chairmen of districts, cities and towns, when necessary, will be invited to participate in answering questions on related issues that the Provincial People's Council delegates are interested in.

To make the question-and-answer session most effective, the Chairman of the session suggested that delegates should ask questions that are concise, clear, and within the scope of the two selected questions. Each delegate has a maximum of 2 minutes to ask a question. After listening to the answers, if they feel the need to respond, they can register for a debate, which should not exceed 3 minutes.

For those answering questions, the Chairman of the session suggested going straight to the point, addressing the responsibilities and issues raised by the delegates; especially for issues that are still lacking, inadequate, or limited, it is necessary to clearly identify the responsibilities, causes, solutions, and roadmap for implementation in the coming time. Respondents have a maximum of 5 minutes to answer each question.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy also said: After the session ends, the Provincial People's Council will issue a notice of conclusions on the questions for the Provincial People's Committee, departments, branches, districts, cities and towns to implement; the Provincial People's Council agencies, delegations, Provincial People's Council delegates and voters of the province will be the ones to monitor and supervise the implementation after the questions.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Council emphasized that it is necessary to well implement the above requirements so that the questioning session can achieve the set requirements and objectives, and after implementing the post-questioning announcement, it will create changes, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of State management in these two areas.

(Baonghean.vn will continue to update the question and answer session)