Many "hot" issues at the press conference before the 6th session of the Provincial People's Council for the 2016-2021 term

Vice Chairmen of the Provincial People's Council: Cao Thi Hien - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee and Hoang Viet Duong - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Executive Committee chaired the press conference. Attending were comrade Le Xuan Dai - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; representatives of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department and leaders of a number of provincial departments and branches, local and resident press agencies. Photo: Minh Chi

At the press conference, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council informed the press agencies and journalists about the expected program and content of this session. Accordingly, the session will review 28 reports on the province's socio-economic, defense and security in the first 6 months of the year, tasks for the last 6 months of 2018; at the same time, review and approve 20 resolutions on socio-economic and defense and security in the province.

The question and answer session focused on 4 issues related to resolving resettlement issues and stabilizing the lives of people affected by hydropower projects; the quality of rural low-voltage power grids and the quality of electricity for people in many areas; the results and effectiveness of applying scientific research topics in real life, applying science and technology to promote increased labor productivity and applying high technology to serve socio-economic development in the province in the coming time.

Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Xuan Dai spoke to explain a number of issues at the press conference. Photo: Minh Chi

At the press conference, representatives of many press agencies reflected and raised many existing problems, limitations, and concerns that are requiring the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council to pay attention and intervene to resolve.

Raising the issue that one of the province's budget revenues currently relies on land sales, journalist Tran Van Hien (Vietnamese Journalist Magazine) is worried that in a few years "there will be no more land to sell"; the recovery of agricultural land for small projects, especially projects to divide and sell plots of land, is lacking transparency, so the Provincial People's Council needs to monitor small projects that require land recovery.

Journalist Tran Van Hien (Vietnamese Journalists Magazine) speaks at the meeting. Photo: Minh Chi

Many “hot” issues were also raised by journalists, such as the need to carefully consider the recovery of rice fields, protective forests, and special-use forests to implement projects; at the same time, it is necessary to closely monitor the conversion of project purposes, creating loopholes for organizations and individuals to circumvent the law to benefit, while the State loses tax revenue and people lose production land.

Some journalists are also concerned about land and forest allocation to people in mountainous areas; the management of health insurance funds to avoid profiteering and raise the sense of responsibility and medical ethics among medical staff at medical facilities; traffic safety issues; forest management and protection issues, etc.

Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Van Lap explains the issue of land and forest allocation to people in mountainous areas. Photo: Minh Chi

Receiving and explaining many opinions raised by journalists, Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Xuan Dai admitted that budget revenue from land sales accounts for 15% of the province's total revenue and currently, the province is also focusing on improving the investment environment to attract large investment projects to increase budget revenue from tax and fee collection and reduce tax revenue from land sales.

Regarding the conversion of rice-growing land and protective forest land, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Xuan Dai affirmed that the process was carried out very strictly and in accordance with the provisions of the law.

Regarding the conversion of project purposes, the Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Le Xuan Dai, admitted that in the past, due to the need to attract investment, the province was lenient in attracting, leading to investors who did not have enough potential, receiving land but not implementing it for many years. To overcome this problem, in recent years, the province has directed strongly to review and withdraw more than 100 projects that investors did not have the capacity to transfer to capable investors, along with strongly improving the investment environment to attract many capable enterprises to invest...

Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Council Cao Thi Hien fully accepted the opinions of the journalists. Photo: Minh Chi

Speaking at the press conference, Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Council Cao Thi Hien highly appreciated the role of press agencies and journalists in recent times in informing and reflecting many issues from real life; through which the Provincial People's Council selected and considered to include them in the supervision program of the People's Council, the Standing Committee and the Provincial People's Council Committees in the first 6 months of 2018 as well as selected to include them in the questioning content at this session.

Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Council Cao Thi Hien also affirmed that the opinions raised at the press conference are also issues that voters and people are interested in and the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council will accept them to supplement and include them in the discussion session in groups and in the hall for discussion and clarification.

On the other hand, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council will also classify the opinions reflected by journalists to forward to the Provincial People's Committee and the sectors for response; at the same time, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council will also be responsible for monitoring and urging the Provincial People's Committee and the sectors to respond to the opinions of journalists.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council hopes that press agencies and journalists will continue to monitor and promote the 6th session of the Provincial People's Council, term XVII, 2016 - 2021, to be a great success.