Perfecting the planning after administrative unit arrangement with long-term vision

Photo caption — View of the meeting. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Focus on urgent, important issues

Presenting the Government's Proposal, Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Quoc Phuong stated that the purpose of promulgating the law is to build a Planning Law with a general scope of regulation for all types of development planning nationwide. The legal system on planning is built synchronously and consistently with relevant laws so that planning is truly an effective tool of the State in planning development and creating development space.

The next goal is to build a unified, streamlined, and effective national planning system; complete plans after administrative unit rearrangement with a long-term vision, free up resources, and clear bottlenecks; strive to reduce at least 30% of procedural processes; decentralize, delegate authority, and assign tasks reasonably, combined with strengthening inspection, supervision, and strict control of power...

The Draft Law on Planning (amended) consists of 6 chapters with 58 articles and 1 appendix.

Regarding the main contents and new points, Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong said that the draft Law completes regulations on the planning system, the relationship between types of planning and handling conflicts between planning; and strengthens decentralization and delegation of authority in planning activities.

Accordingly, regarding the authority to decide and approve planning, the draft Law stipulates: The National Assembly decides on the national master plan; decentralizes the Prime Minister to approve the national maritime spatial planning, national land use planning and regional planning; decentralizes the Minister to approve sectoral planning and detailed sectoral planning; decentralizes the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee to approve provincial planning. The authority to approve urban and rural planning is implemented according to the provisions of the law on urban and rural areas.

In addition, the draft Law also simplifies processes and procedures in planning activities; perfects regulations on planning content; and removes difficulties and obstacles related to assessing the conformity of investment projects with planning.

After preliminary examination, the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee agreed with the necessity, political basis, legal basis and practical basis to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and approval of the draft Law on Planning (amended) according to the shortened procedures.

The review agency pointed out that overcoming institutional and legal "bottlenecks" on planning cannot be solved by simply amending the Law on Planning, not just by abolishing or renaming the planning, but also by reviewing and synchronously amending legal provisions on planning in the planning system, legal provisions on general investment and investment in specific fields, and improving the effectiveness of law enforcement. The review agency proposed to continue perfecting all provisions in the draft Law in the direction of clearly defining and defining the role, orientation, and leadership of planning in managing economic and social activities and attracting investment.

Emphasizing the role of planning, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh suggested reviewing and re-defining the scope of the current Law on Planning, not taking on too much. The drafting agency should also consider adding detailed sectoral planning along with sectoral planning, as this could increase the number of plans and create new problems.

Sharing the same view, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Quang Phuong said that in the urgent context of passing the plan at a session of the National Assembly, only a few things that are really bottlenecks should be amended to remove practical obstacles. In particular, the most difficult is to resolve the relationship between planning and strategy and plans; between planning and the national socio-economic development plan, the provincial socio-economic development plan, land use plan...

Concluding this content, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh suggested that the Government direct the drafting agency to focus on a number of key groups of tasks. In particular, the Government should study the scope of amending the current Law on Planning, focusing on urgent and important issues that need to be amended immediately, avoiding handling this issue and causing conflicts at other points; reviewing to fully institutionalize the Party's directions and policies. In addition, it is necessary to ensure consistency between the Law on Planning (amended) and the draft laws presented at the 10th Session such as the Law on Investment, the Law on Urban and Rural Planning, the Law on Land, the Law on Construction; clearly identify which law is of principle nature for other laws to adjust accordingly, avoiding conflicts and overlaps in practice.

Avoid term-based thinking or short-term, local adjustments

On the morning of October 14, giving opinions on adjusting the National Master Plan for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, members of the National Assembly Standing Committee proposed that the Government continue to fully institutionalize the viewpoints and guidelines in the Politburo's resolutions, closely following the Politburo's Regulation No. 178-QD/TW on controlling power, preventing and combating corruption and negativity in law-making work.

The Government proactively reports to competent authorities for comments on necessary contents according to regulations, ensuring consistency and unity with other draft laws such as: the draft Law on Planning (amended), the draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Urban and Rural Planning, the draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Land and other draft laws expected to be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at the 10th Session.

At the same time, the Government continues to review and update the content to ensure it is consistent with the new context and new names of administrative units after the arrangement and implementation of the 2-level local government model, striving to achieve the double-digit growth target in the period 2026 - 2030 and the following years. Review socio-economic development indicators towards comprehensiveness, modernity and sustainability, economic development associated with environmental protection, while closely following and consistently implementing the Politburo's Resolutions on socio-economic development, industry, sector, region and local development.

The Government needs to consider and supplement the viewpoints and principles for adjusting the national master plan in the direction of promoting stability, long-term, ensuring high predictability, having a solid scientific and practical basis, avoiding term-based thinking or local, short-term adjustments, and handling situations. Continue to research and perfect the development orientation of the urban and rural system, considering urban areas as growth poles associated with the development of technical infrastructure, social infrastructure, and smart cities; research and have specific policies for rural areas, mountainous areas, and ethnic minority areas.

*In the morning session of October 14, the National Assembly Standing Committee also gave opinions on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on National Defense Industry, Security and Industrial Mobilization.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/hoan-thien-quy-hoach-sau-sap-xep-don-vi-hanh-chinh-voi-tam-nhin-dai-han-20251014132136776.htm