Presenting 2 options for the second session of the 15th National Assembly

Continuing the second session program, on the morning of August 18,Standing Committee of the National Assemblygive opinions on the summary of the first session and give initial opinions on preparations for the second session of the 15th National Assembly scheduled to open on October 20, 2021.

Opinions in the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed with the assessment: After 9 days of working with a high sense of responsibility, positivity, urgency, and seriousness, the first session ended very successfully, completing the entire proposed program, ensuring absolute safety, creating positive spillovers, and consolidating the people's firm belief in the Party and State.

2 options for organizing National Assembly sessions

Mr. Bui Van Cuong - General Secretary, Head of the Office of the National Assembly said that currently, the Covid-19 epidemic situation is still very complicated, accordingly, the organization of the 2nd session of the 15th National Assembly needs to be carefully prepared and considered in terms of content, implementation methods and conditions to ensure that the session opens on time, ensuring quality, progress and absolute safety in terms of epidemic prevention and control. Therefore, the General Secretary of the National Assembly presented 2 options for organizing the 2nd session.

Mr. Bui Van Cuong - Secretary General, Head of the Office of the National Assembly.

Option 1 is that the National Assembly will hold online meetings for the entire session (if the pandemic continues to develop complicatedly). It is expected that group discussions will be held on draft laws, socio-economic issues, state budget, planning, national land use plans, the Project to ensure water security and safety of dams and reservoirs, the economic restructuring plan, and the draft Resolution on PVN.

National Assembly delegates were divided into 73 discussion groups, including: About 200 central National Assembly delegates were divided into 10 meeting groups at the National Assembly House; Local National Assembly delegates were divided into 1 group/locality.

National Assembly deputies vote to pass the Resolution by ballot. Sending and receiving relevant documents (draft resolution dossiers, summary reports, receiving and explaining opinions, etc.) is done through secret channels.

The total working time of the National Assembly is expected to be 17 days and 1 reserve day (the National Assembly works 1 day on Saturday); the preparatory session and opening session will be on October 20, closing on November 10, 2021.

With this plan, the National Assembly Office will coordinate with relevant agencies to urgently complete technical conditions to meet the requirements for online meetings, especially meeting the requirements for online voting and voting by ballot; coordinate with the Central Party Office (Information Technology Center - Cryptography) to transfer and receive documents via cryptographic channels.

Option 2 is that the National Assembly will hold online meetings combined with in-person meetings at the National Assembly House and divided into 2 phases (when the epidemic is well controlled, then the in-person meetings will be held).

According to this plan, the National Assembly is expected to work 17 days and have 1 reserve day; of which, the National Assembly is arranged to work 2 Saturdays.

Phase 1 will be an online meeting for 11 days (from October 20 to November 2); discussions will be arranged in groups (divided into groups similar to option 1). Phase 2 will be a 6-day meeting (from November 4 to 10); discussions will be arranged in groups as usual.

Approval and comments on 7 draft laws

At the 2nd Session, the National Assembly will consider and approve the draft Law on amending and supplementing the Appendix - List of national statistical indicators of the Law on Statistics, the draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Criminal Procedure Code, and the draft Resolution on the Orientation of legislative work of the 15th National Assembly term.

Five draft laws were discussed, including: Law on Mobile Police; Law on Cinema (amended); Law on Insurance Business (amended); Law on Emulation and Commendation (amended); Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Intellectual Property.

2nd session of the Standing Committee of the 15th National Assembly

In addition, the National Assembly also reviewed reports on socio-economic issues, the state budget, supervision and other important issues; conducted questions and answers from National Assembly deputies.

Regarding the amendment and supplementation of a number of articles of the 2015 Penal Code to implement Vietnam's relevant commitments in the CPTPP Agreement (effective from January 14, 2022), General Secretary Bui Van Cuong said that at the conclusion of the 57th session (June 2021), the National Assembly Standing Committee requested the Government to work with the Supreme People's Court to agree on a handling plan; in case it is necessary to amend and supplement the Penal Code, coordinate to carefully prepare the dossier according to regulations, report to the National Assembly Standing Committee before submitting to the National Assembly. However, to date, the Government has not made any specific proposals.

Regarding the two draft resolutions of the National Assembly on a number of specific policies for Thua Thien Hue and Thanh Hoa, the Government has submitted a dossier to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at the second session. Based on the opinions of the National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee has requested the Government to promptly complete the complete dossier of the resolutions to send to the examining agency and submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration at the September 2021 session. After consideration, if qualified, it will be added to the proposed agenda of the second session./.