5 Year Review on the Planning Law Enforcement

The workshop was chaired and attended by HE. Dr. Vuong Dinh Hue, member of Politburo cum Chairman of National Assembly, Mr. Nguyen Duc Hai,  member of the Party Central Committee cum Vice Chairman of National Assembly; Mr. Le Quang Huy, member of the Party Central Committee cum Chairman of Committee for Science, Technology and Environment; Mr. Nguyen Dac Vinh, member of the Party Central Committee cum Chairman of Committee for Culture and Education affiliated to National Assembly; Dr. Sc. Phan Xuan Dung, VUSTA Secretary of the Party Committee cum President and representatives of ministerial agencies and leading experts and scientists of VUSTA.

Speaking at the workshop, VUSTA President Phan Xuan Dung affirmed that the Planning Law was approved by the National Assembly on November 24^th 2017 mentioning new points, approaches, ways and methods regarding planning work of our country.

With a wide scope and objects of planning to all sectors, fields across the country, a number of sectors and localities remain confusing in the implementation. The 15^th National Assembly has issued Resolution on thematic supervision “The implementation of planning policies and laws since the issuance of Planning Law up to now” so that the Planning Law can be deployed synchronously and uniformly.

Having the consent from leaders of National Assembly, VUSTA cooperated with the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment affiliated to National Assembly to organize the scientific workshop in order to consult scientists, experts, management officials of a number of central and local agencies and ministries on the implementation of policies and laws on planning since the issuance of Planning Law up to now.

Mr. Phan Xuan Dung expressed his pleasure of being trusted by the National Assembly and selected and assigned tasks to Vietnamese science and technology intellectuals to implement the functions of consultancy, evaluation and collect opinion on issues interested by the National Assembly and nationwide voters.

Dung affirmed that VUSTA is a social-political organization of Vietnamese science and technology intellectuals, a common house gathering a large number of experts and intellectuals in various fields in order to consult and evaluate as well as give timely, objective opinions on important policies of the Party, the State and key investment projects with great influence on the society.

VUSTA President Phan Xuan Dung delivered opening speech at the Workshop.

For many years, consultancy and evaluation activities have been paid close attention by VUSTA and central as well as local level. The scientific and technological intellectuals have focused on research and contributed a lot of valuable ideas for the formulation of guidelines, policies and laws of the Party and State; policies and strategies for socio-economic development, science and technology, education and training, environmental protection, health care, social security, key investment projects; issues that need the participation of scientific and technological intellectuals, contributing to the effective implementation of important socio-economic development projects of the country, ministries, branches and localities. This activity has become a reliable information channel to assist the Party and State in considering and making decision on important issues.

With the attendance of H.E Vuong Dinh Hue, Mr. Nguyen Duc Hai and members of the Party Central Committee, representatives of the Ethnic Council and Committees of the National Assembly, agencies and ministries; Especially with the participation of a large number of members of National Assembly, experts and scientists who are dedicated and responsible for the Party and the country, there will certainly be a lot of profound, objective and scientific contributions to the Planning Law; to the implementation of policies and laws on planning in our country in the current context and in the future.

The VUSTA President hopes that, once the Party, National Assembly and Government have put their trust in the scientific and technological intellectuals of the country, VUSTA will provide a good link between the intellectuals and the Party, the National Assembly and the Government, ministries, branches and local governments to make it better and better; the scientific and technological intellectuals will make more contributions to the realization of their noble mission for the country and the nation, contributing to building our country more and more powerful and prosperous.

On behalf of the National Assembly Party Committee and the National Assembly Standing Committee, Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue welcomed the participation of leading experts and scientists of the country in the field of planning in the workshop on very important content, directly serving the first supreme supervision topic of the 15^th National Assembly. The National Assembly’s Chairman affirmed that planning would play a very important role in the development of the country in general and socio-economic development in particular. Planning would be both a premise but also a driving force for development. Therefore, planning must always be long-term and must be one step ahead. Planning and management must always be considered as a top task in state management and socio-economic development of the country.

The National Assembly’s Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue delivered a speech at the workshop.

Planning and planning management have been established for many years. In 2017, the National Assembly promulgated the Planning Law and it was effective from January 1, 2019. However, the implementation of the Planning Law has revealed confusion. Therefore, on August 16, 2019, the National Assembly Standing Committee issued Resolution No.751/2019/UBTVQH14 explaining some contents of the Planning Law to remove obstacles and allow making parallel planning; At the same time, the planning that is completed first must be approved first, and then adjusted according to the principle that the lower-level planning must be consistent with the superior.

Along with the Planning Law and Resolution No. 751 of the National Assembly Standing Committee, over the past time, the National Assembly has amended and supplemented 73 relevant laws. In fact, planning is still being regulated by 3 Laws, including Planning Law (including national master planning, national planning, national sectoral planning, regional planning, and provincial planning), rural planning is made under the Construction Planning Law and urban planning is made under the Urban Planning Law. Particularly for 5 cities under the Central Government, there are two types of provincial planning, including a general plan made according to the Urban Planning Law and a master plan made according to the provisions of the Planning Law.

Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue said that in the recent implementation of the planning work, there were still problems that the leaders of the Party, the State, the National Assembly, voters and people were still worried about.

With the spirit of objectivity, openness and democracy, Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue wishes to listen to the opinions of experts and scientists who are very knowledgeable in the planning field about the current situation of planning work, point out problems and inadequacies of the Law and its guiding documents, which problems are implemented by the organization and most important, what solutions should be proposed to solve such problems?

Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue stated that the supervision topic must clarify "how we did it", that is how the National Assembly, the Government and relevant agencies implemented policies and laws on planning work, positive results must be confirmed, problems and inadequacies must be clearly indicated and solutions should be suggested, it must not blame on anyone, it must be very objective, frank and responsible for the development of the country to report to the National Assembly for consideration and decision.

Within the framework of the Workshop, experts and scientists gave opinions and suggestions when mentioning some issues, such as Evaluating the results of the implementation of policies and laws on planning work since the Planning law comes into force; The situation and challenges of planning work since the Planning Law 2017; Contributing to the construction and planning in Vietnam, etc.

On concluding at the workshop, the National Assembly’s Vice Chairman Nguyen Duc Hai highly appreciated the comments and suggestions of scientists and experts for the implementation of policies and law on planning since the Planning Law comes into force. All opinions were mentioned the achieved results as well as difficulties and challenges, thereby the practical and useful solutions were proposed to accelerate planning work and guarantee the planning quality.

The National Assembly's Vice Chairman said that the National Assembly's Supervision Team will acquire the contributive opinions of experts and scientists to report to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration and comments on the implementation of policies and laws on planning work.