2nd Session, 13th National Assembly: Proposing the National Assembly to conduct supreme supervision on traffic congestion and accidents

• October 31, 2011 16:43

In the National Assembly session this morning, October 31, Mr. Nguyen Hanh Phuc, Head of the National Assembly Office, presented the National Assembly Standing Committee's Report on the National Assembly's planned supervisory program for 2012. Accordingly, the National Assembly is requested to supervise 2 topics at 2 sessions during the year. The Ethnic Council supervises 2 to 3 topics; each committee supervises 1 to 2 topics; reports the results to the National Assembly Standing Committee and sends the report to National Assembly deputies.

The National Assembly Standing Committee proposed 3 topics for the National Assembly to choose 2 topics for supervision. They are "Implementation of policies and laws on public investment for agriculture, farmers and rural areas"; "Implementation of policies and laws to resolve citizens' complaints and denunciations about land in the administrative field" and "Implementation of policies and laws on social insurance".

Discussing this issue in the hall, many delegates agreed that the National Assembly should have supreme supervision over the implementation of policies and laws on public investment for agriculture, farmers and rural areas. However, regarding the second supervision topic, delegate Bui Manh Hung (Binh Phuoc) did not agree with the remaining two topics and suggested that the National Assembly have a supervision topic on the activities of state-owned corporations and groups. Delegate Hung commented: “This is an issue that has been raised for a long time, but the situation has changed little, and only the National Assembly can carry out supervision.”

Also agreeing with the topic of monitoring public investment for agriculture, farmers and rural areas, delegates Le Thi Nga (Thai Nguyen delegate, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Judicial Committee) and Nguyen Anh Son (Nam Dinh) suggested that the National Assembly focus on monitoring the implementation of traffic policies and laws to resolve traffic congestion and accidents.

“In the last three terms, the National Assembly has not conducted supreme supervision on traffic, only one was conducted by the National Defense and Security Committee and the most recent one was the supervision of the National Assembly Standing Committee in 2008. However, supervision at the committee level has certain limitations and cannot have as profound an impact as the supervision of the National Assembly. The Minister of Transport has also officially requested the National Assembly to conduct supervision on this issue,” Ms. Nga said.

Traffic jam of motorbikes on Cong Hoa Street - HCMC. Photo: Duc Tri

Also this morning, the National Assembly listened to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development present the Government's Report on the results of the implementation of the project to plant 5 million hectares of new forests in the period 1998 - 2010. Vice Chairman of the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Nguyen Vinh Ha presented the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment's Verification Report on this issue.

The review report of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment agrees with the Government's assessment that the project has created a major change in awareness of socio-economic efficiency and environmental protection. The sense of responsibility for forest protection and development of localities and people has clearly changed. Forest management and protection has achieved remarkable results: forest cover has increased gradually over the years, from 32% (in 1998) to 37.1% (in 2005) and 39.5% (in 2010); initially forming raw material areas for the development of the wood and forest products processing industry, mobilizing capital from the whole society for new planting and forest protection; contributing to job creation and improving the lives of a part of the population...

In general, by the end of 2010, most of the project's planned targets and tasks had been achieved and exceeded the National Assembly's Resolution. The number of violations of forest protection laws tended to decrease: in 2010, it decreased by 46% compared to 1998.

However, the Project also has many limitations. The organization and implementation of the Project in the period 1998 - 2005 is still confusing. The planning and management of the implementation of forestry land planning and planning of 3 types of forests is still slow, revealing many limitations.

Land allocation, forest allocation, and issuance of forest land use right certificates have not been implemented well; the average level of forest land allocation is only about 5-6 hectares/household, not enough for people to have their main income from the forest. The leasing of forest land to foreign investors still has many shortcomings, causing public outrage. Forest coverage is still low compared to the requirements (39.5% compared to the target of over 40%) and uneven; forest quality and reserves are not high; the ability to supply wood from forests is still low (up to 80% of wood materials must be imported). Most of the natural forest area is poor forest, restored forest, mixed forest (accounting for 75%), rich and medium forest only reaches 25%. Illegal logging, forest exploitation, forest fires, forest encroachment, and resistance to law enforcement officers are still occurring seriously in some localities...

The Committee on Science, Technology and Environment proposed to the National Assembly to allow the Government to implement forest protection and development under the National Target Program mechanism during the 2011-2020 period; at the same time, end the Government's annual reporting to the National Assembly on the status of the Project to plant 5 million hectares of new forests.

The Committee also requested the Government to seriously learn from experience in directing and implementing the project, stabilizing agricultural land use planning, and having reasonable solutions for the area leased to foreign investors for forest planting. In particular, the Government needs to have a comprehensive solution to address deforestation, illegal deforestation, and issue an insurance mechanism or risk reserve fund for production forests.

The National Assembly will discuss this content in groups on November 1 and in plenary session on November 10.

* Through the implementation of the project of planting 5 million hectares of new forests, by 2010, the total forest area increased to approximately 13.4 million hectares. The area of forest lost due to violations of forestry laws, although still large, has decreased significantly: in 1998 it was 18,377 hectares; in 2005 it was 13,942 hectares, and by 2010 it was only 7,415 hectares. Every year, the Project has spent about 150 - 200 billion VND to contract for the protection of about more than 2 million hectares of forest concentrated in priority areas.

* Forest protection and development target for the period 2011-2020: increase forest cover to 42-43% by 2015 and 44-45% by 2020. Strive to bring the forestry sector's GDP to 2% by 2015 and 3% of the country's GDP by 2020.

(According to the Government's Report on the results of the project to plant 5 million hectares of new forests)

(According to SGGP)