Judicial
sector urged to improve performance

President Nguyen Minh Triet asked the
judiciary to improve the quality of its work practically and ethically at a
meeting here yesterday, Jan 5.

Photo: Vietnam+

Speaking
at the meeting on the shake up of the judiciary this year, the President called
for reforms to be speeded up and for international co-operation to be boosted.

Triet
praised the judicial sector for the achievements it had made on improving its
performance and international co-operation last year.

He added
that an efficient judiciary was essential for maintaining political security and
social order.

Triet
went on to say that the courts needed to strengthen their self-supervision.

He
called on the sector to ensure the law was strictly obeyed to minimise the
number of wrongful verdicts.

During
the meeting, judicial representatives acknowledged the sector’s shortcomings and
said it would strive to improve its role this year.

They
said the judiciary would also deal with the backlog of cases that had built up
and increase the quality of the courts’ judgements.

Last
year, the judiciary settled 91.4 per cent of the cases it had been assigned.

On the
subject of personnel, the people’s courts recruited more than 900 staff. In
addition, 1,053 judges were re-accredited.

The
judicial meeting wraps up today, Jan 6.

National
Assembly promises to enhance the quality of its work

The National Assembly plans to build
on the lessons learnt over the last 65 years and continue to improve its
operational efficiency to meet the country’s development goals.

NA
Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong made the statement yesterday, Jan 5, at a ceremony to
celebrate 65 years since the first election of the Vietnamese National Assembly.

Party
General Secretary Nong Duc Manh also attended the ceremony.

During
the meeting, Trong highlighted the historical significance of the first General
Election on January 6, 1946. The event represented a glorious milestone in Viet
Nam’s history and was a democratic breakthrough, he said.

For the
first time in its history, the country had a legally founded State to represent
the people’s interests, he said.

Trong
said that over the Assembly’s 12 tenures it had fulfilled its role as the
country’s most powerful agency.

The NA
has contributed greatly to the country’s struggle for national liberation,
unity, and national reconstruction, he said.

The
Assembly’s achievements were due to the leadership of the Party, its strong
attachment to the people and efforts to renew its organisation and working
methods, he said. He also praised the work of National Assembly deputies, the
State President, the Government, the Supreme Court, the Supreme People’s
Procuracy, the Viet Nam Fatherland Front, as well as the support given by
friends across the world.

Former
deputy chairman Dang Quan Thuy said he still closely followed the NA’s
operations and was delighted at law-makers’ performance regarding legislature
and supervision.

He asked
the NA to continue to strengthen its attachment to the people, while promoting
democracy and boosting the development of a strong law-based socialist country.

Voter
Nguyen Ngoc Thuy, from Ha Noi’s Ba Dinh District, expressed her delight at
attending the ceremony.

She said
despite students’ heavy study schedule, the country’s younger generations always
paid attention to the important political events.

She said
the NA had always supported the rights of students, as evidenced by the laws on
youth and marriage and families.

She
called on the Party, State and NA to continue working for the nation’s youth so
that they could make a valuable contribution to national construction.

On the
occasion of the 65th anniversary of the first NA election, Chairman Nguyen Phu
Trong and other senior leaders visited General Vo Nguyen Giap, one of the
country’s first lawmakers.

On
behalf of the NA standing committee, Trong said lawmakers were also celebrating
Giap’s election to the Assembly 65 years ago.

Trong
said the first election was a great source of national pride and a testament to
those who had contributed to the country’s development.

Unionists should better protect workers’ rights

Truong Tan Sang, Politburo member of the Communist
Party of Vietnam Central Committee, has emphasised housing, especially for
low-income earners, as a hot issue that unionists should take care of in the
coming years.

Sang, who is also permanent member
of the Party Secretariat, raised the issue at a meeting of the Vietnam General
Confederation of Labour (VGCL) in Ho Chi Minh City on January 5.

He also urged trade unions at all
levels to protect workers’ stable employments, reasonable incomes and social and
medical insurances as well as negotiate with employers on building more day-care
centres and entertainment facilities for workers.

“Efforts should be made to
strengthen personnel training and expand the trade union networks at all levels
as well as renovate performances in order to better protect working people’s
rights,” said the senior Party official.

He explained that once workers’
rights, including accesses to vocational training and higher education, are well
protected, relations between employers and employees in all economic sectors
would improve.

In reply, VGCL President Dang Ngoc
Tung said his agency has drafted two resolutions on improving grassroots trade
union performances and facilitating women’s involvement in the national
industrialisation and modernisation cause in the interest of women’s
advancement.
Trade unions worked hard in 2010 to help ensure stable incomes for workers,
especially in the private economic sector, where over 85,000 new businesses
employed some 1.6 million workers.

However, problems such as
enterprises’ delay in paying social insurances for their staffs and labour
disputes leading to major strikes are on the rise, calling for trade unions to
further expand and improve their operations in an effort to better protect
workers’ rights, concluded the VGCL executive committee.

Leader
sympathises with Egypt

President Nguyen Minh Triet yesterday sent condolences to Egyptian President
Mohammed Hosni Mubarak over the human losses in a suspected bombing suicide in
Alexandria, Egypt, on New Year’s Day.

At least
22 people were killed and more than 70 injured after a bomb exploded outside a
church as worshippers left a new year’s service.

Foreign
Ministry spokesperson Nguyen Phuong Nga also denounced the violence against
Christians.

“Viet
Nam strongly condemns the terrorist blast at ‘Al-Qiddisain’ church,” she said.

“We
would like to send our deepest condolences to the Egyptian Government and the
families of victims. We believe that terrorists should be strictly punished.”

VNN/VOV/VNS