NA’s extraordinary session considers major, urgent issues

Hanoi (VNA) – The first extraordinary session of the 15th National Assembly (NA), opened in Hanoi on January 4, is looking into some major, important, and urgent issues.

The opening plenum in the morning saw the presence of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, and NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

NA deputies’ delegations nationwide attended the session via videoconference.

In his opening speech, Chairman Hue emphasised that in 2021, especially the third quarter, the fourth wave of COVID-19 with the spread of the Delta variant in almost all localities took a heavy toll on every socio-economic aspect.

Given the country’s urgent demand and basing on the Constitution, the Law on Organisation of the NA, and resolutions of the parliament’s second session, the NA Standing Committee decided to summon the first extraordinary meeting of the 15th NA so as to consider and make timely decisions on some major, important, and urgent issues relevant to the economy, society, finance, and budget with a view to providing timely support for the COVID-19 prevention and control programme and the socio-economic recovery and development programme, he noted.

During this extraordinary session, the NA is set to vote on a resolution on fiscal and monetary policies to assist the implementation of the socio-economic recovery and development programme, he said, describing this resolution as particularly important to coping with the pandemic, addressing losses, recovering and developing the economy and society, reviving the labour market, and dealing with social security and welfare issues.

These are supplementary policies which have not been included in the fiscal and monetary measures approved in the socio-economic development, financial, public borrowing and debt repayment, and public investment plans for 2021 - 2025, he added.

The NA is set to debate and vote on a bill amending and supplementing some articles of the Law on Public Investment, the Law on Public - Private Partnership Investment, the Law on Investment, the Law on Electricity, the Law on Enterprises, the Law on Special Consumption Tax, and the Law on Enforcement of Civil Judgments.

During the meeting, the parliament will discuss and decide a resolution on piloting some special mechanisms and policies for the development of Can Tho in order to institutionalise the Party Central Committee and Politburo’s resolutions on this Mekong Delta city in a timely manner.

Besides, the NA Standing Committee and the Government had agreed to submit to the extraordinary session a supplementary report on the current COVID-19 prevention and control work, especially the response to the Omicron variant; the prevention, detection, and settlement of wrongdoings in the pandemic combat; the COVID-19 prevention and control programme; along with the programme on socio-economic recovery and development.

The extraordinary session holds considerable significance and attracts great attention from people nationwide, overseas Vietnamese, as well as the business community, Chairman Hue remarked./.