Under the spirit of renewal, new impetus, and new resolve, together with the Government’s efforts, the National Assembly (NA) has recently decided many important issues of the country, including the long-lasting, urgent ones involving various sectors and fields. Doing so has laid all-round, significant prerequisites for completing the system of institutions, policies, and laws to usher our country into a new era - the era of the Vietnamese nation’s rise.

NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man addressing the 15th NA’s 8th session (photo: quochoi.vn)

Over the past 80 years of establishment, development, and maturity, the present-day NA of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a truly noble symbol of national independence and unification; it is the place where the entire nation’s willpower, faith, and strength converge and spread. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), in each revolutionary period and term, the NA has always perfected itself in terms of structure, stepped up reforms, raised its task performance, and successfully fulfilled its historical mission and revolutionary tasks assigned by the CPV, people, and electorate. The NA has kept affirming its position and role as the highest representative organ of the people, the highest organ of state power of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the sole organ that has the constitutional and legislative rights and exercises the right to supreme supervision of all activities of the State on behalf of the people; it also decides major issues of the country. Since its inception, the NA has developed and promulgated 5 Constitutions as the most fundamental laws of the State demonstrating the people’s willpower, aspirations, knowledge, and creativity under the CPV’s leadership. Those Constitutions have provided a solid political, legal foundation for our country’s sustainable development in the past 8 decades. That has been confirmed by General Secretary To Lam: “The NA in general, the 15^th NA in particular, has made significant contributions to national achievements. Over the time, the NA’s activities have been carried out with many reforms, becoming more substantive and effective. The NA has unceasingly promoted its role as the highest representative organ of the people, the highest organ of state power”.

Bringing into play lessons learned from history, at its 8^th session (21 October 2024 - 30 November 2024) - a historic session, the 15^th NA focused on addressing difficulties, removing bottlenecks, deciding many thorny, urgent issues that had existed for years and terms and involved various sectors and fields; as a result, resources have been unlocked for socio-economic development, defence - security consolidation, and the people’s life. At the same time, the NA discussed and passed many strategic-level projects to provide all-round prerequisites and make significant contributions to perfecting the system of institutions, policies, and laws to bring our country to a new era - the era of the nation’s rise. The NA’s activities have been conducted with significant reforms in terms of awareness and approach, widely and deeply spreading the spirit of the 13^th Party Central Committee’s 10^th Plenum in all phases and steps; the NA has made sound, timely decisions in accordance with Resolution 27-NQ/TW, dated 9 November 2022, by the 13^th Party Central Committee’s 6^th Plenum on continuing to build and perfect the socialist rule-of-law State of Vietnam in the new period as evidenced by the following.

The NA has achieved reforms in terms of awareness and improved the effectiveness of its activities. Under the spirit of comprehensive renewal, receiving opinions from experts, managers, enterprises, and people from all walks of life, the NA and its Standing Committee have adopted reforms, particularly in preparations for sessions, carefully reviewing, completing, and submitting reports to the whole NA for approval. Moreover, there have been reforms in coordination between agencies in charge of designing and examining draft laws and draft resolutions.

The timely distribution of draft reports, submissions, laws, and resolutions to NA deputies has both enabled NA deputies to elaborately prepare their opinions and helped shorten duration for presenting those documents at the hall; as a result, NA deputies and representatives of relevant offices have spent more time discussing and clarifying issues of public concern. At the same time, the NA has also achieved reforms at its sessions by reducing public discussions at the hall and increasing group discussions to ensure that more NA deputies would have chance to express their opinions in a democratic and objective way. Notably, right after group discussions, agencies in charge of designing and examining legal documents have proactively collaborated with each other to develop preliminary explanatory reports under the spirit of receiving, researching, and dealing with every single opinion urgently, opportunely, and thoroughly.

The NA has kept reforming its legislative work. This is a main function of the NA, constituting one of the central tasks of its sessions. Over the years, the NA has devoted efforts to reform its legislative work, raising the quality of legislation, proactively, opportunely institutionalising the CPV’s lines, concretising the Constitution, genuinely reflecting the willpower and aspirations of the electorate and people. Thus, in each term, the NA has sufficiently complied with legislative principles, releasing a large number of legal normative documents, greatly contributing to perfecting the system of laws for almost all aspects of social life, opportunely meeting the requirements of industrialisation, modernisation, and national development amid the country’s wider and deeper integration into the world.

At the 15^th NA’s 8^th session, legislative work was put at the forefront of the agenda, with a view to quickly removing three biggest bottlenecks today, namely institution, infrastructure, and human resources; among them, institution is the “bottleneck” of “bottlenecks”. NA deputies voted to pass 18 laws with high approval rates, approved 21 resolutions, and made opinions on 10 other draft laws. Those were draft laws and draft resolutions catching great attention of the electorate, people, and business community. Some draft laws and draft resolutions were considered and passed by the NA under shortened procedures; with their new regulations, those documents have been seen as breakthrough policies to not only swiftly address difficulties in investment, production, business, and public investment projects, but also create a long-term legal foundation for new issues and trends, such as data management and use, digital technology industry development, high-speed railway construction, nuclear power and offshore wind power development, thereby contributing to realising the digital transformation revolution, keeping pace with the trend of the times, and fostering socio-economic development in the new era of the nation.

When draft laws and draft resolutions are received, revised, and submitted to the NA for consideration and approval, and when the NA makes opinions on draft laws, it is noticeable that legislative work has been carried out with a robust change in law-making mindset to ensure state management, encourage innovation, free the entire production capacity, and unlock all resources for development. Management thinking is no longer rigid; we resolutely get rid of the mindset: “if you can’t manage it, then prohibit it”. Consequently, legal regulations issued by the NA have become more stable and had lasting values. A law only establishes a framework and merely stipulates matters of principle in a short, succinct way. In the process of reception and revision of draft laws, agencies have proactively carried out reviews to remove regulations under the authority of the Government, ministries, and other offices, while avoiding codifying content of circulars and decrees. As for the issues that have not been stable yet, the law on those issues only establishes a framework and delegates the Government to specify them, thereby ensuring flexible administration and meeting the requirements set by reality. Consequently, after the process of reception, revision, and completion, there has been a considerable reduction in the number of chapters, articles, and terms in draft laws submitted by the Government.

It is worth noting that the development and submission of the (amended) Public Investment Law, which amends four laws in the field of investment, along with nine laws in the field of finance and budget, have acted as a typical example in reforming law building work; the NA has “shifted from management thinking to the unlocking of resources”, stepping up decentralisation under the motto: “localities decide, localities do, localities take responsibility”. Meanwhile, the Party Central Committee, NA, and Government have played their role as a facilitator, perfecting institutions, enhancing inspection and supervision, reducing or simplifying administrative procedures, avoiding creating the “ask - give” mechanism, putting the people and businesses at the centre of legal regulations promulgated by the NA.

In the military and defence field, the NA has passed the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Officers of the Vietnam People’s Army and the Law on People’s Air Defence with high approval rates, demonstrating regard by the CPV, State, and NA for the building of a strong contingent of officers as the core force in the building of a revolutionary, regular, elite, modern People’s Army. At the same time, those documents have created a legal foundation for asserting the importance of people’s air defence to preventing and effectively dealing with defence - security situations in the air, contributing to defending the Fatherland early and from afar.

The NA has considered and decided many important issues as prerequisites for the nation’s rise in the foreseeable future. In order to resolve difficulties and drawbacks, make a breakthrough in infrastructural development, maximise resources, and create a new development space, the NA has discussed and passed resolutions on the investment policy for the North-South high-speed rail project, adjustments in national land planning in the period of 2021 - 2030, with a vision towards 2050, and other key national projects. Notably, the Resolution on the investment policy for the North-South high-speed rail project is of importance to the country’s development in the new era, proving the innovative thinking on national infrastructural development as this project has been approached and planned in an overall, long-term, strategic manner together with a harmonious combination of socio-economic development, environmental protection, and defence - security consolidation. This is not only a key traffic construction, but also a symbol for the country’s aspirations and innovation, demonstrating the spirit of readily overcoming all difficulties and challenges to create a big chance for Vietnam’s rapid and sustainable development.

The NA has also discussed and passed many mechanisms and policies to opportunely settle national-level issues, quickly eliminate “bottlenecks” created by mechanisms, policies, projects, and land, and provide a favourable condition for fostering production and business development, freeing resources, and improving the people’s material and metal life, such as the (amended) Health Insurance Law facilitating the transfer from the first medical examination and treatment establishments to hospitals at higher levels, reduction of value added tax, the National Target Program on cultural development in the period of 2025 - 2035, and the National Target Program on drug prevention and control towards 2030. To spread the CPV’s lines, the NA has allowed the use of 5% savings from regular expenditures of Central and local budgets in 2024 for eradicating temporary and dilapidated houses for poor and near-poor households, thus contributing to ensuring social welfare. The NA has strongly agreed with the line on building and completing legal corridors for new issues, such as national energy infrastructure development (the restart of the Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Project), application of achievements in artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and green transformation, with the aim of making robust breakthroughs for the country’s development in the following years of the new era.

The NA has better performed its function of supreme supervision. The NA’s supervision activities have been conducted more practically and effectively, aimed at not only translating laws into life, ensuring the strict, uniform enforcement of laws, but also heightening a sense of responsibility among state bodies, making contributions to building a socialist rule-of-law State of the people, by the people, and for the people. Via its supervision activities, the NA has opportunely rectified drawbacks from sectors and localities, while recommending amendment, supplementation, and perfection of mechanisms and policies.

Question-and-answer (Q&A) activities at the NA’s sessions, particularly at the 8^th session have been reformed and considered successful with the Government’s strong commitments in direction, management, and administration. After Q&A, the NA has passed resolutions with specific requirements and tasks for the Government and relevant ministries and sectors in order to keep raising the efficiency and effectiveness of supervision. At the same time, the NA has selected forms of supervision relevant to reality, such as supervision at grass-roots level, contingency supervision, and combination of NA and People’s Council supervision. In this regard, supervision activities have been aimed at improving the effectiveness of execution of mechanisms and policies, avoiding any overlaps with other state agencies’ operations or any impacts on normal activities of offices and units.

Furthermore, the NA has decided significant issues on high-level leaders of the country and rearrangement of administrative units at district and commune levels in the period of 2023 - 2025 as an important foundation for localities across the country to quickly stabilise their apparatus and successfully organise all-level party congresses towards the CPV’s 14^th National Congress.

Currently, our entire Party, people, and Military, with the new spirit, new impetus, and solid faith in the CPV’s leadership, are stepping up the cause of national renovation and international integration, entering a new era - the era of the nation’s rise. That is an era of development and prosperity when we will successfully build socialism in Vietnam with wealthy people, strong nation, democracy, equality, and civilisation on a par with powers across the five continents. That is an era when all people will enjoy well-being and our country will make more contributions to the world’s peace, stability, and development, humankind’s happiness, and global civilisation. To that end, a top priority will be given to realising strategic goals: by 2030, Vietnam will become a developing country with modern industry and high middle income, Vietnam will become a developed socialist country with high income by 2045. However, our country is being confronted with urgent issues. The people are expecting decisions and strategies from the CPV, State, and NA. Hence, in the upcoming time, the NA will continue to promote unity, a sense of responsibility, and renewal to improve its task performance under the motto: “the Central level sets an example, localities follow”, with a focus on several main tasks as follows.

First, concentrating on synchronously, effectively realising decisions made the NA recently, particularly at the 8^th session of the 15^th NA. The NA Standing Committee, Government, Prime Minister, Ethnic Council, NA Committees, sectors, state bodies, NA delegations, and NA deputies should quickly, opportunely implement the approved laws and resolutions, while grasping the innovative thinking on law building associated with law enforcement to create positive spillover effects across the entire political system and people.

Second, proactively maintaining coordination to prepare for the 9^th and 10^th sessions of the 15^th NA, actively making preparations for a national conference on final review of operations of People’s Councils and NA delegations in 2024, attaching great value to rendering people from all walks of life fully aware of the importance of the revolution to streamline the apparatus of the political system, and raising a sense of responsibility for practising thrift and combating wastefulness.

Third, grasping and quickly meeting the urgent requirements set by the streamlining of the apparatus of the political system in the new era, closely aligning ideological work with organisational work, personnel work, and policy work, raising awareness and a sense of responsibility among cadres, party members, and employees, particularly heads of offices and units, improving the task performance of NA deputies as the key to reforming the NA’s activities.

The NA Party Organisation and the NA Standing Committee should establish a Steering Board and develop plans to assign specific tasks to members of the Board. The NA and its deputies should play an exemplary role in this regard. It is necessary to identify functions, tasks, and relationships between offices, particularly between the NA and the Government to guarantee close, harmonious procedures for national governance. The NA’s Ethnic Council and committees as well as agencies of the NA Standing Committee should be consolidated and rearranged to operate in an efficient, effective fashion.

Besides, offices of the NA, agencies of the NA Standing Committee, and the NA Office should further research and review laws, ordinances, and resolutions on the organisation and operation of the NA in particular, the entire political system in general to proactively submit amendment and supplementation to the NA and the NA Standing Committee as a legal foundation for the streamlining of the apparatus of the political system, ensuring that the CPV’s lines will be realised in the quickest way.

Fourth, the NA, agencies of the NA, affiliates of the NA Standing Committee, and the NA Office should continue to effectively organise the fight against corruption, wastefulness, and negative practices. In this fight, due attention should be paid to four central solutions: raising awareness and a sense of responsibility among cadres and party members towards scientific working style, forming social ethical responsibility, and tightening discipline; perfecting institutions for preventing and fighting corruption, wastefulness, and negative practices, strictly handling violations; completely settling the root causes of corruption, wastefulness, and negative practices; building thrift culture, considering the practice of thrift and the fight against wastefulness as a routine, daily task of each individual and organisation.

Fifth, developing and executing plans on final review of the tenure of the 15^th NA, conducting personnel planning for the 16^th NA, directing preparatory work for elections of deputies to the 16^th NA and all-level People’s Councils for the 2026 - 2031 tenure.

Moreover, the NA should grasp and well perform three major tasks set by the 13^th Party Central Committee’s 10^th Plenum, namely reforming and rearranging the apparatus of the political system, accelerating the fulfilment of the goals and tasks set by the 13^th National Party Congress, and well preparing for the 14^th National Party Congress, ushering the country into a new era. Bringing into play the recorded good results, the NA will continue to reform its organisational structure and raise its operational quality to deserve to be the highest representative organ of the people and the highest organ of state power, well perform its functions and tasks under the Constitution, surmount all difficulties and challenges, and fulfil all established targets for the sake of a mighty, prosperous Vietnam and the people’s well-being.

TRAN THANH MAN

Member of the Politburo

Chairman of the NA of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam