LookAtVietnam – The National Assembly Standing Committee discussed restructuring the financing of education and training during 2008-12 and the draft Law for the Revision of laws related to Investment in Capital Construction yesterday.

Investment in private construction projects did not need to be evaluated by State agencies because private investors had already taken all legal responsibility on themselves when they obtained a licence.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan said the project aimed at building new financial structure to further mobilise and effectively use contributions from the State and society to improve the quality and expand the scale of education and training.

Under the new project, no fee will apply for primary students nation-wide and for the children of underprivileged and needy households.

It said fees for households whose children were studying at public kindergartens and secondary schools would not exceed 6 per cent of their average income.

As for the households with lower incomes, if such a percentage was not enough to meet study demands, the State would give additional aid, not included in school fee exemptions.

The NA’s Culture, Education, Youth and Children Committee Chairman Dao Trong Thi, said six per cent was quite high for a group of newly-developed countries. With Viet Nam, the rate was too high because households’ income were low.

He said the project needed to clarify issues such as the rate of the State’s budget expenditure for education and training.

The structure and methods should be more concrete to attract businesses to contribute to the sector.

Nhan said if the fee policy remained it would be difficult to improve the quality of education and training.

To do this, the State should raise its budget while society made more contributions to the sector.

Vice NA Chairman Nguyen Duc Kien asked the Government to further evaluate the likely impacts of the policy if it was introduced.

The adjustment of fees needed a concrete plan and should match the quality of education being provided.

Capital construction

The Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc said that many projects needed to be adjusted during implementation due to outside factors. The law’s Clause 40 closely regulated project adjustments, requiring companies to get permission from authorised agencies, which often takes a long time.

Chairman of the NA’s Economic Committee Ha Van Hien, along with other members, agreed that investors should be able to decide for themselves when to adjust a project, except for certain aspects that affect the wider community, which will still require official permission.

Members said that current supervision of investment in State-owned projects was to ensure project quality and efficiency.

However, under the draft law, all construction works and projects, including private ones, would require supervision and assessment, which would not be feasible, said Hien. Investment in private construction projects did not need to be evaluated by State agencies because private investors had already taken all legal responsibility on themselves when they obtained a licence, he said.

Hien proposed the law’s drafting board create different regulations for State-owned and private projects. For example, private projects needed supervision overland use, environment protection and work quality, he said.

As for development projects, the draft law regulates the bidding packages for consulting service cost less than VND500 million and packages on goods purchase and installation worth under VND1 billion. The draft law also dictates the Government should be able to control which companies are allowed to bid.

Some members said these prices were too low, but they agreed the Government should have the right to regulate bidding.

Hien said that in the long term, it would be necessary to have open bidding, but in the current economic climate, the Government needed more control to stimulate investment.

However, Hien said the draft law needed to closely regulate the price of bidding packages to avoid misuse.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News