On October 25, National Assembly deputies in Hanoi for the autumn session, attended lessons on how best to use their laptops.

In the last two years, the chiefs and vice chiefs of provincial NA delegations were provided with free laptops. The NA Office organised short-term IT training classes for them. Seeing good results from using laptops, the NA Office has decided to equip all deputies.

On October 25, each NA deputy received a laptop branded Hai Phong Elitebook 2530p, manufactured in Singapore worth nearly 30 million dong each.

They were also instructed how to use the laptop, wireless network, email and E-office software to send and receive documents. This is part of a programme to build e-Congress.

It’s also part of a wider movement to ensure deputies are educated and equipped for posts. Looking to the list of NA deputies from the 9^th to the 12^th terms, standards improve.

In the 9^th term (1992-1997), there were 395 deputies, of which 222 were university or post-university graduates, accounting for 56.2 percent. There were 450 deputies for the 10^th term (1997-2002), including 411 university and post-university graduates, reaching 91.33 percent.

The 11^th term (2002-2007) had 498 deputies, including 465 university and post-university graduates, accounting for 93.37 percent. The current term (2007-2011) had 493 deputies, including 473 university and post-university graduates, making up 95.94 percent.

Minister of Finance and NA deputy Vu Van Ninh said that since laptops appeared in Vietnam he cannot live without one. In fact, Ninh has two laptops, one at his office and one at home.

The 6^th NA session will have over 40 documents of potentially hundreds of pages each. Laptops and computer files will save the deputies a lot of lifting and carrying.

VietNamNet/TP