During the 4^th session of the 15^th National Assembly (NA), taking place from October 20 to November 15, deputies of Hanoi have shown their responsibilities as the people's representatives and contributed opinions to the law-making process.

Deputies of Hanoi at the NA session. Photo: Thanh Tien

Before the 4th session, the Hanoi NA Delegation held meetings with voters to discuss draft laws and resolutions on the NA’s working agenda, during which thousands of opinions were collected and summarized.

In the debate on price control, a fundamental part of the draft revised Price Law, Deputy Vu Tien Loc stressed that price regulation is intended to stabilize prices, but above all to ensure a sufficient supply for domestic consumption.

"During the management process, the government must maintain the double objective of maintaining price stability and avoiding supply interruptions," Loc said, urging drastic measures to prevent a recurrence of the recent gasoline shortage in several provinces/cities in recent months.

Regarding the draft revised Law on Procurement, Deputy Khuat Viet Dung expressed concern over the mounting violations during the procurement process that led to losses of the public asset.

He asked the Government to reconsider its proposal to expand the list of scenarios eligible for direct contracting to 10, stating that this would contradict the objective of promoting competitiveness, publicity, transparency, and economic efficiency in contracting.

Direct contracting, therefore, should only be limited to exceptional cases, such as urgent projects; projects related to national security and defense; purchasing drugs, chemicals, supplies, and health equipment or disease prevention in critical situations; projects to ensure consistency and compatibility in technologies, experiments, or acquisition of intellectual property rights.

“There should be effective state management measures for price comparison during the bidding process, as well as for promoting online bidding to promote transparency and efficiency,” Dung said.

In a discussion on the revised draft Law on Protection of Consumers’ rights, Deputy Truong Xuan Cu addressed the lack of clarity on the responsibilities and rights of three main stakeholders in the law, including customers, producers, and distributors.

He suggested that the law should add rules on the consultation rights of customers, especially the elderly, and vulnerable groups, and the responsibilities of producers and distributors for counterfeit or substandard products on the market.

Deputy Nguyen Thi Lan, referring to the draft Law on Cooperatives, hopes that there will be more favorable conditions for different subjects in society to contribute capital for the operation of cooperatives. However, the current Law on Cadres and Civil Servants does not allow state sector employees to contribute funds to cooperatives.

"This would limit the contribution of   scientists and universities in the process of creating added value for cooperatives, ultimately preventing greater efficiency in the development of the collective economy," Lan added.

For his part, Deputy Ta Dinh Thi asked that the next revision of the Petroleum Law contemplate incentive policies for scientific and basic exploration works, considered an increasingly important task, even more than the actual search and exploration activities, due to the difficulties in finding new oil fields.

“This policy could help Vietnam attract strategic investors into the oil production and mobilize international collaboration in fine-tuning the country’s policies in maritime protection and climate change response during oil exploring and drilling activities,” he continued.

During various debate sessions, opinions from Hanoi’s NA deputies have been highly appreciated by the NA Standing Committee, Government, and agencies, and would be used as a basis for the finalization of draft laws and resolutions.