The National Assembly may convene earlier and amend the Constitution.

On the morning of March 10th, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly opened its 43rd session. In his opening remarks, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man stated that this was the first session after the Standing Committee of the National Assembly and the National Assembly reorganized their committees.

Following the 9th extraordinary session (February), the Standing Committee of the National Assembly reorganized the structure of the Council of Ethnic Minorities and its committees to stabilize them and allow them to begin work immediately.

The Speaker of the National Assembly stated, "The fact that work commenced immediately after the restructuring of the National Assembly and the Government has facilitated access to administrative procedures and the resolution of issues for citizens and businesses."

At this meeting, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly will provide explanations, revisions, and feedback on three draft laws before submitting them for consideration at the Conference of National Assembly Deputies working in specialized committees, if deemed necessary, and will present them to the National Assembly for approval at the upcoming 9th session.

Those bills are: the Corporate Income Tax Law (amended); the Special Consumption Tax Law (amended); and the Law on Management and Investment of State Capital in Enterprises.

According to the Speaker of the National Assembly, given the current context of aiming for a growth rate of 8% or higher in 2025 and successfully implementing the five-year socio-economic development plan, the provisions in these draft laws are extremely important and can become a leverage to create momentum for the economy to achieve its set goals sooner.

At the session, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly will also give its opinion on 5 draft laws submitted to the National Assembly for the first time at the 9th session, including: the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Product and Goods Quality; the Railway Law (amended); the Law on Personal Data Protection; the Law on Emergency Situations; and the Law on Participation in United Nations Peacekeeping Forces.

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly also gave its opinion on reducing land rent in 2024, reviewed the National Assembly's report on citizen petitions in February…

The Speaker of the National Assembly emphasized that in the coming period, the workload of the National Assembly will be very large, with higher demands and greater responsibilities, especially new tasks related to reviewing and amending the 2013 Constitution and related laws in accordance with Conclusions 126 and 127 of the Politburo and the Secretariat.

In addition, the volume of legislative tasks and routine work is also very large. The Chairman of the National Assembly stated that, specifically, the projects included in the 2025 legislative and ordinance drafting program include 11 laws to be passed and 16 laws for which opinions are being sought, not including laws under Conclusion 127 and other resolutions that the Government plans to propose adding.

Mr. Tran Thanh Man provided further information about the upcoming 9th session of the National Assembly, which is expected to include many important issues, including amendments to the 2013 Constitution and related laws. In April, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly may hold several sessions to work on restructuring the administrative apparatus at the commune level and streamlining the system.

The Speaker of the National Assembly stated that there will be many sessions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, possibly including Saturdays, Sundays, and nights, to arrange administrative units as presented by localities and the Government, in order to ensure progress.

The Politburo and the Secretariat have requested the completion of many tasks before June 30th, so the 9th session of the National Assembly is expected to open earlier, possibly after the April 30th - May 1st holiday. The Chairman of the National Assembly requested the Council of Ethnic Minorities, relevant agencies of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, and the Government to actively coordinate in finalizing the drafting of laws to be submitted at the session.

Accordingly, the agenda items to be presented to the National Assembly at its 9th session must be considered immediately in April. The draft Law on the National Assembly and People's Councils (amended) must be completed in March for submission to the competent authority; and submitted to the Central Committee Conference in April. The plan and methods for the election of deputies to the 16th National Assembly and People's Councils at all levels for the 2026-2031 term must be completed in March to ensure submission to the Central Committee in April.

The Chairman of the National Assembly assigned the Vice Chairmen, the Committee on Representative Affairs, the Committee on Citizen Petitions and Supervision, and the Committee on Law and Justice to coordinate with relevant agencies in implementation. He requested that from now on, the agencies must closely follow the directives of the Central Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Central Steering Committee for summarizing Resolution 18.

At the same time, it is necessary to urgently prepare the contents of the program, closely coordinate the preparation of contents to be submitted to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to ensure progress and quality, and avoid situations where requests for postponement or transfer to the next session occur, thus preventing work from being concentrated close to the session.