14th NA’s fourth meeting passes planning law

The draft law, passed with 88.19 percent of votes, includes six chapters with 72 articles regulating the establishment, assessment, decision or ratification, adjustment and inspection of the national planning system.

It will come into force from January 1, 2019.

The same day, the legislators discussed the amended Law on National Defence. They agreed to develop a law towards building a modern, regular revolutionary army and combining defence with economic, cultural and social affairs.

Lawmakers reached consensus on the amendment of the law to repair shortcomings and asked the drafting agencies to clarify the limitations and evaluate impacts of new policies like regulations on state of defence emergency and defence education.

Regarding the combination of defence with economic, cultural and social affairs, they said that there should be specific regulations which stipulate responsibilities of military and security organisations in each project.

Defence Minister Ngo Xuan Lich made it clear that the regulation stipulating the army’s task of joining in production and building the economy institutionalizes the Party’s guidelines and viewpoints and concretizes Article 68 of the 2013 Constitution.

Performing the task, the army has taken part in eradicating poverty, spurring socio-economic development, and building defence-economic zones, while providing infrastructure for dozens of thousands of households to engage in economic production to stabilize their life, he said.

He noted that many military-run enterprises have been leading in the application of science and technology, international integration and military diplomacy, producing products with high-tech contents and contributing trillions of VND to the State budget, with Viettel and MB Bank a few to name.

“The task of joining in production and building the economy has been and will be an extremely important duty of the military and it must be regulated in the revised Law on National Defence,” Minister Lich said.