President Nguyen Minh Triet yesterday,
Dec 14, promulgated three new laws including the Law on Consumer Rights
Protection, the amended Law on Minerals, and the Law on Public Officials and
Civil Servants which were passed by the National Assembly during its 8th
session.

In the
meeting held yesterday by the President’s Office, deputy minister of Industry
and Trade Le Danh Vinh said that the number of violations of consumer rights and
the extent of the violations were on the increase, seriously affecting the
rights of consumers.

The Law
on Consumer Rights Protection regulated that disputes between consumers and
individuals and organisational businesses would be settled by negotiation,
conciliation, arbitration and courts.

Consumer
protection organisations have the right to sue businesses for harming the public
interest and the State would provide funding for organisations to implement the
tasks outlined in the law.

Introducing the amended Law on Minerals, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources
and Environment Chu Pham Ngoc Hien said the law’s new points were regulations
related to licensing mineral exploitation through the auctioning exploitation
rights, State management of minerals, and devolution of licensing powers to
local authorities.

Auctioning mineral exploration rights would help abolish the current “give and
take” mechanism in licensing and allow qualified organisations which had enough
capacity and experience in the sector to be chosen, he said.

The Law
also laid out regulations on the overall direction of the mineral sector as well
as rules on mineral planning and exploration to avoid overlapping
responsibilities between different State agencies, Hien said.

The
breakthrough amendment of the revised law was the change in State’s mineral
management mechanism which was based on financial regulations and in line with
the rules of the market economy, he said.

Under
the law, the State would collect a fee from individuals and organisations that
are licensed to explore minerals.

The Law
on Minerals and Law on Consumer Right Protection will come into effect on July
1, 2011.

Deputy
minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Duy Thang said the Law on Public Officials and
Civil Servants would come into force on January 1, 2012.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News