NA Chairwoman helps Can Tho voters understand special zone law

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The meeting, with the presence of a delegation of NA deputies of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, was meant to update the voters of the results of the fifth session of the NA’s 14th tenure.

Voters shared the views that many national socio-economic issues had been discussed productively at the meeting and praised the outcomes of the meeting.

While noting down the voters’ opinions, Chairwoman Ngan clarified that the legislature decided to postpone the approval of the draft Law on Special Administrative – Economic Units in order to have more time to make it complete.

The law-making body unanimously agreed to revise the regulation on land lease limit for production and business on the draft law towards applying the regulation on land lease of the current Land Law, and not allowing the lease of up to 99 years for special cases, she said.

As guidelines and policies of the Party and State, the 2013 Constitution, and several legal documents have referred to the establishment of some special administrative-economic units, the making of the draft Law on Special Administrative – Economic Units began in mid-2013 with the view of forming special zones to spur economic development and create regions that play as a driving force for the nation building and development, Ngan stated.

She said voters’ concerns about the draft law are right and the NA needs more time to acquire these feedback to fine-tune the draft law, and praised the people’s patriotism as well as their concerns about the country’s important issues.

The leader told the voters that they can contribute their opinions to the Party, State and NA in various forms and should not let them be incited by distorted information, leading them to get involved in disturbing social order, sabotaging, and even committing legal violations like the incidents that have recently happened in some localities.

“We made sacrifices and spent dozens of years undertaking the Doi Moi (Renewal) to ultimately have our present country of peace, independence, and reunification, and it is growing, so it is not simple that we will issue a law or establish special units that would drive our country into difficulty,” the leader said. 

Regulations on the draft law were to be studied on the basis of acquiring constructive opinions and making revisions so they must ensure the national territorial integrity and sovereignty and safeguarding the security and defence of the special zones and the country, she confirmed.

The law is novel, complicated, and first-time with many new and breakthrough regulations, Ngan said, adding the NA listened to comments from voters, people, and deputies and decided to postpone the time of adopting it in order to fully absorb the feedback from people.

Regarding the voters’ questions about the newly-adopted Law on Cyber Security, she cited a foreign professor as saying that cyber is sovereignty of any countries, noting that in this “virtual space” hostile actions are as dangerous as those in real life.

Together with the robust development of science and technology, the cyber has become an indispensible factor and played an important role in building an information society and developing an intellectual economy, she said.

Science and technology has been applied strongly in our country to contribute gravely to speed up the national industrialization and modernization, develop the national economy, improve the living standards, promote people’s right to mastery, and safeguard the national defence an security, Ngan told the voters.

The making of the Law on Cyber Security is necessary as it will protect national security, social order and safety, rights and legitimate interest of citizens, organizations and individuals inside Vietnam, and will handle all subjects that violate laws on the cyber, the NA leader said.

The right to free expression on the cyber is not entitled to this law, she said.  “The law is meant to handle violations on the cyber, not bar the right to free speed of citizens.”

Regulations on the law requiring foreign organizations and offices providing services on the cyber in Vietnam to store individual information of the service users in Vietnam and important data relating to national security, and set up headquarters and representative offices in Vietnam comply with laws in Vietnam, international norms and they do not run counter to the treaties that Vietnam has joined. Up to 18 countries worldwide did request the same things, she explained.  

The screening of the documents regarding the country’s commitments to joining the WTO, GATS, and TRIPS, and CPTPP show they have contained regulations on security exceptions, allowing the national security to be respected and defended at the highest level, and that meant with the Law on Cyber Security Vietnam has not violated its international commitments.

“There will be no hindrances to the traffic of data to affect the normal operations of agencies, organizations, and businesses, even the start-ups,” she also assured. 

At the meeting, the leader noted down and explained the voters’ questions about the revised Law on People’s Public Security, the building of regular communal public security force, and the development of transport infrastructure in the Mekong Delta.