LookAtVietnam – The National Assembly discussed a draft law on the scale and age requirements for the militia force yesterday morning, October 29.

Photo: VNN

Regarding the organisation of the militia, Deputy Be Xuan Truong, from Bac Kan Province, said the law should oblige employers to create appropriate conditions for employees to train at their place of work.

Deputy Do Can from Ha Noi agreed, saying that it would be easier to co-ordinate training in the workplace as employees would be gathered together.

Opinions varied however on the age requirements for the militia.

The draft law suggested that the age for joining the militia for men should be from 18 to 45, while for women from 18 to 40.

Deputy Nguyen Thi Bieu, from Quang Ngai Province, said that the age requirement for women should be from 18 to 35 due to their limited effectiveness.

Deputy Nguyen Dang Trung, from HCM City, said it was imperative to create a strong maritime militia.

Trung said that a maritime militia would be able to protect both fishing rights and the country’s maritime sovereignty.

Deputies also discussed raising the militia’s monthly allowance.

NA’s supervision

National Assembly deputies have expressed concern over the quality of supervision of regulations and wanted stricter attention paid to the issue, including re-examination after supervision.

The proposals came yesterday in the Assembly’s discussions on next year’s supervision activities in which Deputy Nguyen Thi Tuyen drew attention to regulations on cooking safety and hygiene as an example.

Tuyen said the Assembly had supervised the regulations and yet they were still a concern in many big cities.

“This means the Assembly has not paid enough attention to re-examination of the implementation of regulations and that punishments for violations are not strict enough,” Tuyen said.

She also said the Assembly should carry out supervision on land use, the first stimulus package in 2009, the issuing and use of Government’s bonds and the poverty elimination programme.

Deputy Nguyen Dinh Quyen from Ha Noi said supervision activities had been too general and had not made individuals or organisations take responsibility.

He said the supervision over the issuing of legal documents had been loose, noting there were instruction documents that did not fully reflect the nature of the laws and regulations.

Deputy Tran Tien Dung from Ha Tinh also recommended supervision of the justice sector, natural resources and environment.

Deputy Nguyen Thi Hong Ha from Ha Noi said supervision should not only be assigned to one office, citing that in the report on the socio-economic situation by the Assembly’s Economics Committee, the content on culture was negligible.

She suggested the Assembly assign more than one office with the required expertise to make sure supervisions were more comprehensive.

Many deputies suggested the Assembly co-ordinate the supervision activities of central offices with those at the grassroots level. They suggested authority be given to the localities to directly supervise and send reports back to the central command.

Meanwhile, the supervision programme of the Assembly next year will focus on the implementation of regulations and laws on schools establishment, investment and quality assurance at college, university and higher education levels; administration reforms in sectors relating to citizens and enterprises.

Most deputies agreed with the plan. However, Deputy Nguyen Thi Tuyen from Ha Noi suggested next year’s supervision be extended to cover the establishment and quality of vocational training schools and continuing education centres.

“This is also important since the quality of vocational training in Viet Nam is still low,” she said.

In the question-and-answer session, Deputy Ha recommended the NA’s Standing Committee prepare an agenda well in advance so deputies had more time for research.

She also said the National Assembly should prepare a set of minutes after each question-and-answer session to include the content and recommendations.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News