The National Assembly discussed in groups 14 special mechanisms and policies for the development of Nghe An province.

ISSUING SUPPLEMENTARY POLICIES FOR NGHE AN IS NECESSARY TO PROMOTE POTENTIAL AND ROOM FOR DEVELOPMENT

At the meeting, delegates discussed the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on piloting the addition of a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Nghe An province, which was submitted by the Government to the National Assembly this morning.

Accordingly, the draft stipulates 4 groups of fields with a total of 14 policies, including: State financial and budget management (4 policies); Investment management (6 policies); Urban and forest resource management (2 policies); Organization and staffing (2 policies).

Of these, 2 completely similar policies have been allowed by the National Assembly to be applied in other localities; 8 similar policies have been allowed by the National Assembly to be applied in other localities, with adjustments and supplements to suit the reality of Nghe An province or similar to the draft revised Law on the Capital; 4 newly proposed policies are suitable for the development reality of Nghe An province.

Speaking at the discussion, the delegates highly agreed on the issuance of the Resolution. Delegate Luong Van Hung - National Assembly Delegation of Quang Ngai province commented: Nghe An is a locality with a large area, population and economic scale in the country.

Although the National Assembly previously issued a Resolution on piloting specific mechanisms and policies for the province; but during the development process, it was found that although there was still potential and room, there were certain barriers in implementation, so it proposed a number of additional specific mechanisms and policies for development.

Therefore, through research, delegate Luong Van Hung agreed and fully supported the proposed mechanisms and policies to create conditions for Nghe An province to have a step forward to develop further in the future.

Also related to this content, delegate Hoang Duy Chinh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Bac Kan province commented that submitting to the National Assembly to issue additional specific mechanisms and policies for Nghe An is very correct and very timely, so that Nghe An has more conditions for development.

Because although over the past years, the Central Committee has paid great attention to the Politburo's Resolutions on Nghe An development, there is still a lack of a strong enough legal basis (mechanisms and policies) to fully exploit its potential and advantages; while the potential and advantages are there, especially the potential of resources and human resources, but it is also a locality in the "central region" with many difficulties and harsh weather and climate.

In particular, citing the provision in the draft Resolution: “In case there are different provisions on the same issue between this Resolution and other laws and resolutions of the National Assembly, the provisions of this Resolution shall apply”, delegate Hoang Duy Chinh commented, this demonstrates “more openness, more clear delegation of power to localities”, creating conditions for localities to easily implement. This is the right policy to remove long-standing bottlenecks.

On the other hand, the Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Bac Kan province also assessed that the draft Resolution has content that shows flexibility when allowing "provinces and centrally-run cities to use their budgets to support Nghe An province in performing socio-economic development tasks and ensuring national defense and security for Nam Dan district and the western region of Nghe An. The People's Council of Nghe An province decides to allow districts, towns and cities under the province to use the budgets of districts, towns and cities and other legal sources to support other localities of the province".

Also from the practice of Nghe An, delegate Hoang Duy Chinh hopes that the Government will soon summarize the mechanisms and policies to strengthen decentralization and delegation of power to localities, associated with responsibilities, on the basis of the Central Government developing criteria so that localities can proactively implement; at the same time, allowing the expansion of policies for provinces and centrally run cities to support other localities, especially supporting localities in difficult areas including: Northwest, Central Highlands, Southwest.

Commenting on the draft Resolution, Major General Tran Duc Thuan - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee on National Defense and Security, National Assembly Delegate of Nghe An highly appreciated the policy allowing provinces and centrally-run cities to use their budget to support Nam Dan district and districts and towns in Western Nghe An.

Emphasizing that this is a very good mechanism and he previously spoke in parliament to propose research so that "rich provinces help poor provinces, rich districts help poor districts, rich communes help poor communes"; however, according to Major General Tran Duc Thuan, this policy should be expanded to allow other provinces and centrally run cities to use their budgets to support all districts, cities and towns of Nghe An to create conditions for Nghe An localities to mobilize resources to contribute to the implementation of goals.

Regarding the effectiveness of the Resolution, the delegate of Nghe An Delegation also expressed the opinion that the implementation period should be studied and extended, and that it will only expire when Nghe An achieves the goal of a fairly good province as Resolution 39 of the Politburo.

During the implementation process, an assessment will be conducted. If any policy is feasible, it will continue to be implemented. If any policy is not feasible, it will be studied and adjusted. In particular, new policies will be studied and added to achieve the goals set by the Politburo for Nghe An.

Regarding the policy of determining the additional balance from the central budget to the local budget, delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province proposed to make specific adjustments as follows: "Nghe An province is allowed to determine the additional balance from the central budget to the local budget without taking into account tax revenue from mineral exploitation activities (excluding value added tax and corporate income tax), from hydropower production facilities in the Western Nghe An region to invest in developing economic and social infrastructure in the Western Nghe An region", to be more transparent, helping the implementation process to be more favorable.

ENSURING SPECIFICITY, EXCELLENCE, AND COMPLIANCE WITH SPECIFIC IMPLEMENTATION REGULATIONS

Speaking at the discussion, Senior Lieutenant General Tran Quang Phuong - Member of the Party Central Committee, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly provided additional viewpoints of the National Assembly Standing Committee in promulgating mechanisms and policies for localities. That is to ensure specificity, superiority, feasibility but not disrupt the legal system, ensure unity; accompanied by specific regulations for implementation.

On that basis, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Quang Phuong assessed that the 4 groups of fields with a total of 14 policies submitted to the National Assembly for Nghe An are suitable for Nghe An's characteristics. At the same time, among the above policies, most of them are policies that have been piloted similarly to other localities. Therefore, according to Senior Lieutenant General Tran Quang Phuong, now having Nghe An piloted is also a way to have a higher practical basis when summarizing and evaluating.

“Based on multi-faceted calculations, the Government, the province, and the National Assembly Standing Committee have reached an agreement. We hope that the National Assembly deputies will support this,” said Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Quang Phuong, speaking about additional policies for Nghe An; at the same time, he emphasized the need to boldly pilot them so that on that basis, policies that are “ripe and clear” can be summarized, evaluated, and legalized to create institutional breakthroughs for the whole country.

Also in the working program, delegates discussed the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on the organization of urban government and piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Da Nang city; Approving the state budget settlement for 2022 (including the implementation of regulations in Resolution No. 91/2023/QH15 on approving the state budget settlement for 2021 and Resolution No. 94/2019/QH14 on tax debt relief, debt cancellation of late payment fines, late payment fees for taxpayers who are no longer able to pay the state budget).

Concluding the discussion, Provincial Party Secretary Thai Thanh Quy - Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province, Head of Group 3 expressed high agreement with the 3 discussion contents in the group.

At the same time, Provincial Party Secretary Thai Thanh Quy provided more information on the viewpoints and process of drafting the National Assembly's Resolution on piloting the addition of a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Nghe An province.

In particular, the province has coordinated with the Ministry of Planning and Investment to concretize Resolution 39, prepare the draft Resolution right from the beginning; and through the working process, on the basis of reviewing and considering the whole, it has finalized 14 policies to submit to the National Assembly. Thereby, it hopes to continue to receive the support of National Assembly deputies for the province.