National Assembly deputies of Dien Bien province participate in economic discussions

National Assembly Delegate Ta Thi Yen participated in speaking at the discussion session on the morning of May 23, 7th session, 15th National Assembly .

Participating in the speech, the National Assembly deputies of Dien Bien province highly appreciated the implementation of the socio -economic development plan and state budget in 2023 and the first months of 2024 with many positive results. The macro-economy is stable, inflation is controlled, major balances are basically guaranteed, disbursement of public investment capital and construction of transport infrastructure are promoted, creating a premise for the successful implementation of the socio-economic development goals, targets and tasks set by the 13th National Party Congress and the socio -economic development plan for the period 2021 - 2025 .

Tourism recovers compared to pre-pandemic levels

2024 is the first year marking the recovery of tourism compared to the year before the pandemic. In the first four months of the year, international visitors to Vietnam reached more than 6.2 million, an increase of 68.3% over the same period last year and an increase of 3.9% over the same period in 2019 (the year before the COVID-19 pandemic). Domestic tourism has developed, especially increasing impressively during the recent April 30 - May 1 holiday.

“This result is thanks to the implementation of visa policies, tourism stimulus programs, major events that are of interest and organized, and many other factors, including the positive effects of traffic infrastructure with many expressways being accelerated, completed, and put into use in recent times,” noted National Assembly Deputy Ta Thi Yen, Deputy Head of the Delegation Affairs Committee.

The delegate said that Dien Bien province, with the completion of upgrading Dien Bien airport and the successful organization of many festivals, a series of events of the Dien Bien National Tourism Year 2024 and the national ceremony to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory, has created a leap forward for Dien Bien tourism with the number of tourists and tourism revenue nearly doubling compared to the same period. From January 2024 to May 7, 2024, Dien Bien welcomed more than 1 million tourists.

As a land rich in tourism potential with borders with Laos and China, with a complex of historical relics associated with the Dien Bien Phu Victory "famous in five continents, shaking the world", with majestic natural landscapes, unique cultural features of 19 ethnic groups..., Dien Bien province has determined to develop tourism into a key economic sector on the basis of exploiting those potentials and advantages.

However, due to the low starting point, being in a remote and isolated area, with limited essential infrastructure, especially road traffic infrastructure, in addition to the efforts of the Party Committee, the government and the people, delegates suggested that the Government and ministries and branches pay attention to and promptly resolve the proposals and recommendations that the locality has sent to the Government and central ministries and branches, including proposals on investing in the Son La - Dien Bien - Tay Trang border gate expressway; investing in roads connecting key economic areas in the dynamic economic zone along National Highway 279 and National Highway 12.

In addition, it is recommended that the Government pay attention to and soon approve the policy of opening the A Pa Chai - Long Phu bilateral border gate; at the same time, consider allocating funds to invest in the infrastructure system of this border gate area because the A Pa Chai - Long Phu opening has been agreed to be upgraded to a border gate by the Governments of Vietnam and China. Currently, the government of Pu'er city, Yunnan province has started construction of the Long Phu - A Pa Chai border gate economic zone (on December 22, 2023), is building a highway from Pu'er city - Jiangcheng district (adjacent to A Pa Chai border gate, expected to be completed in 2024) and has proposed to Dien Bien province to soon open the bilateral border gate according to the plan.

Market volatility

However, in addition to the achieved results, the Deputy Head of the Delegation Affairs Committee said that there are some issues that need attention, such as some unusual fluctuations in the market in recent times. For example, the gold, real estate, and corporate bond markets are unstable and need to be directed, resolved, stabilized, and clarified by the media soon to avoid negative impacts on the economy and disturbances to people's psychology.

"Regarding the gold market, we can clearly see that this is not the actual need of the people, but it could be due to some speculators manipulating the market for profit" - Delegate Ta Thi Yen expressed her opinion.

For the real estate market, there is a lack of low-cost and medium-priced commercial housing segments that are suitable for people's financial capacity. Social housing is in excess in some places and in shortage in others. The 120,000 billion VND credit package for social housing has only disbursed 83 billion VND. Currently, there are 14,000 surplus resettlement houses in Binh Tan district, Thu Duc city, Ho Chi Minh city. In Hanoi, there are also thousands of abandoned resettlement apartments such as in Long Bien and Cau Giay districts... which have wasted public financial resources, while people lack housing. The delegate suggested that it is necessary to clarify the responsibilities of relevant agencies as to why our policies are very good and very humane, but are slow to be implemented, while people are very eager and waiting.

The legal system is still contradictory and overlapping.

Participating in the speech, delegate Lo Thi Luyen, Deputy Head of the Provincial Delegation of National Assembly Deputies, said that many sessions of the National Assembly have pointed out the situation where a number of cadres, civil servants and public employees have shown signs of pushing work, fear of making mistakes, fear of responsibility, and do not dare to give advice, leading to slow progress, reducing the effectiveness and efficiency of state management and the trust of businesses and people. The delegate said that there is a close correlation between the provisions of the current legal system and the responsibility of performing public duties of the cadres, civil servants and public employees.

National Assembly Delegate Lo Thi Luyen participated in speaking at the discussion session on the morning of May 23, 7th session, 15th National Assembly.

“When the legal system is still contradictory, overlapping, and inconsistently applied, it is obvious that civil servants must first protect their own safety, not daring to make decisions, not daring to act, not daring to advise when clearly aware of the legal risks and consequences,” said delegate Lo Thi Luyen.

Recently, the National Assembly passed a special policy mechanism for a number of key national projects and some localities. Delegates asked, is the legal system like “a shirt that is too tight, unable to wear” so we have to ask for a special policy mechanism, and is there any problem in the implementation process that requires adjustment and supplementation? If asked about their wishes, surely all units and localities want to have a special policy mechanism for their units and localities.

At the 5th and 6th sessions, the 15th National Assembly issued Resolution No. 101/2023/QH15 and Resolution No. 110/2023/QH15, which included content on reviewing and perfecting the legal system. The Government has also focused on reviewing and promulgating many documents to overcome and remove difficulties and obstacles for localities and enterprises. However, the shortcomings of the legal system have not been thoroughly resolved. For example, regarding the appraisal of environmental impact assessment reports for hydropower plants with a capacity of 2MW to less than 20MW, no agency is currently assigned authority. Localities have proposed recommendations many times but have not been accepted or addressed. The 2023 Law on Water Resources will take effect from July 1, 2024. Accordingly, the Government will issue a decree detailing the implementation of the Law, replacing Decree 02/2023/ND-CP, proposing to amend this regulation in the direction of assigning the provincial People's Committee to grant licenses for hydropower projects with a capacity of less than 20MW to be consistent with the provisions of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020.

“The legal system needs to be regularly reviewed according to the provisions of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents. When there are overlaps or contradictions, they need to be promptly amended and supplemented, creating conditions for localities to deploy and implement, and creating conditions for cadres and civil servants to have a clear legal basis in performing their public duties, only then can we hope to overcome the current situation of cadres and civil servants avoiding responsibility” - the Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Dien Bien province emphasized.

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