Perfecting the legal system on urban and rural planning suitable for two-level local government

The draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Urban and Rural Planning was submitted to the National Assembly on the morning of November 7, focusing on perfecting the legal system, promoting decentralization and delegation of power, and ensuring compliance with the two-level local government model.

Promote decentralization, delegation of authority, and procedure simplification

Continuing the 10th Session, on the morning of November 7, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh, the National Assembly listened to the Minister of Construction and Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee present the Submission and Verification Report on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Urban and Rural Planning.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh chaired the meeting. (Photo: DUY LINH)

Presenting the Proposal, Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh said that the promulgation of the draft law aims to perfect the legal system on urban and rural planning to institutionalize it in accordance with the Party and State's policies and guidelines on innovation in law-making thinking, reorganizing the political system, implementing a two-level local government, decentralization, simplifying administrative procedures, improving the investment and business environment, developing the private economy, meeting the requirements of science and technology development, innovation, digital transformation; ensuring the unity and synchronization of the legal system.

This Law amends and supplements a number of articles of the Law on Urban and Rural Planning No. 47/2024/QH15. The draft law is structured into 2 articles: Article 1 on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Urban and Rural Planning, including 38 clauses regulating the contents of amendments and supplements.

Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh presents the report. (Photo: DUY LINH)

Article 2 on enforcement; in which, amend and supplement the content of 16 articles to comply with the law on planning, land, construction; delimitation of authority; decentralization, appropriate decentralization of the organization of 2-level local government and simplification of administrative procedures; technical adjustment of 21 articles, abolishment of 2 articles and keeping 20 articles.

The draft law includes the following basic contents: Completing to ensure unity and synchronization of the legal system and conformity with the organization of two-level local governments; promoting decentralization and delegation; reducing and simplifying administrative procedures; completing related regulations to organize smooth and effective implementation.

The draft Law is expected to be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at the 10th Session of the 15th National Assembly and take effect from January 1, 2026.

Ensure sufficient necessary indicators for state management work

Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai. (Photo: DUY LINH)

On behalf of the examining body, Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai said that the Committee agreed with the political, legal and practical basis of amending and supplementing the Law on Urban and Rural Planning according to the shortened procedures and order with the viewpoints and purposes stated in Submission No. 1009/TTr-CP. The draft Law dossier meets the requirements prescribed in Clause 3, Article 37 of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents.

In the process of completing the draft, the Committee proposed to continue reviewing and ensuring consistency and unity with related draft laws and draft resolutions of the National Assembly submitted at the 10th Session.

At the same time, carefully assess the impact of amending the Law on Planning to fundamentally remove obstacles and difficulties, avoid new bottlenecks in implementation; closely follow the direction of the Central Committee, the Politburo, and the General Secretary on Resolution No. 06-NQ/TW of the Politburo on planning, construction, management and sustainable development of urban areas in Vietnam and Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas.

Regarding planning levels and cases of establishing planning levels, many opinions suggest that the State only approves the General Plan and the Zoning Plan (1/2000), not the Detailed Plan, because this will ensure all necessary criteria for state management, with a long, stable planning period and long-term development orientation.

View of the meeting. (Photo: DUY LINH)

If the planning level is simplified in the direction of "integrating" the content of the zoning plan into the master plan, it may make the master plan more complicated, prolong the preparation time, and potentially cause problems in organization and implementation, especially in the context of arranging administrative units according to the 2-level government model.

There are opinions suggesting that the State only approve detailed planning for projects and works of special importance, technical infrastructure works, and areas with political, cultural, historical, defense, and security roles.

Regarding the city's master plan, many opinions believe that it is only necessary to establish a single master plan based on the consolidation of the contents of the city's master plan and the provincial plan. Some other opinions suggest that the provincial plan and the city's master plan should be established separately, and the draft Law on Planning (amended) should be revised to clearly define the contents of each level of planning, ensuring no overlap and no obstacles in implementation.

Regarding the approval authority, there are opinions suggesting that the City People's Committee approve the City Master Plan to ensure consistency with the draft Law on Planning (amended), avoiding conflicts and contradictions during implementation. Some other opinions suggest keeping the Prime Minister's authority to approve the City Master Plan due to the special position and role of urban areas in the socio-economic development of the region and the whole country.

The Economic and Financial Committee also proposed to continue perfecting regulations on approval authority and appraisal agencies for urban and rural planning tasks; ensuring compliance with the policy of decentralization, delegation of power, and strong authorization to localities; at the same time reviewing regulations so that the content of each type and level of planning only includes elements that are truly necessary and suitable for management characteristics.

TRUNG HUNG

Source: https://nhandan.vn/hoan-thien-he-thong-phap-luat-ve-quy-hoach-do-thi-va-nong-thon-phu-hop-chinh-quyen-dia-phuong-2-cap-post921396.html