First working day of 14th National Assembly’s ninth session

The 14th-tenure National Assembly (NA) started its 9th session in Hanoi on May 20 in the form of a teleconference.

Under the chair of Standing Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong, NA deputies heard a report on COVID-19 prevention and key measures for post-pandemic economic recovery presented by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, and another one related to socio-economic development plan and State budget in 2019 presented by Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Economic Affairs Vu Hong Thanh.

Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Tran Thanh Man presented a report collecting comments and recommendations of voters and people to the 9th session.

Head of the NA’s Ombudsman Committee Nguyen Thanh Hai presented a report on supervising the solution of the voters' petitions to the 8th session of the 14th NA.

Other reports were related to a proposal from the State President to the National Assembly (NA) for ratifying the European Union – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

In the afternoon, NA deputies focused their discussion on the approval of the two agreements.

Nine deputies gave opinions during the discussion,. Most of the opinions agreed with the content of the President's proposal, the Government's explanatory report, and the verification report of the National Assembly's Committee for External Affairs on the agreements.

Participants stressed that the Government's action programme to implement the EVFTA should have more attention for policies for small- and medium-sized enterprises, improve the transparency of the investment environment, further assess the impact of the trade pact on Vietnam, and build measures to improve national competitiveness.

Regarding the EVIPA, some lawmakers said the agreement will pose great challenges to domestic enterprises because of their limited competitiveness and human resources.

Based on the opinions of NA deputies, the NA Standing Committee will direct the inspecting agency to closely coordinate with relevant agencies to revise the draft Resolution in order to submit to the NA for consideration and approval, Phong said.

Legislators agreed with the proposal of the State President and relevant reports presented at the session.

Concluding the discussion, Phong said joining Convention 105 needs a roadmap and thorough preparations, and affirmed that Vietnam continues to respect and protect fundamental rights of labourers in accordance with the ILO Declaration.
The NA is scheduled to look into the PM’s proposal for the draft Vietnam Border Guard Law and reports on the legal document on May 21 morning.