The draft Law on the Elderly sets the minimum age for senior citizens at 60.

The name of the health law has sparked off an intense debate among the committee members.

Tran Dinh Dan, director of the National Assembly Office, and Ha Van Hien, director of the Economic Committee, expressed their approval of the suggested name.

On the issue of occupational certificates and operating licenses for health clinics, the majority of committee members agreed with what had been written in the draft law that they should be issued only once.

However, they said, the certificates and licenses could be revoked if serious legal violations were found.

Committee members also discussed whether or not public medical staff should be allowed to work in the private sector. The majority said they should.

Regarding the draft Law on the Elderly, participants said it should only be applicable to Vietnamese citizens aged 60 or over.

Later in the day, NA chairman Nguyen Phu Trong led the Standing Committee in a discussion about what was learned at the last meeting of the NA in May and a brainstorm of initial ideas for the 6^th session later this year.

The 6^th session will be held for 29 days from October 21 to November 27 this year, according to NA Office head Tran Dinh Dan.

In this session, the NA has 16 days allotted to creating laws, which will include passing eight laws and discussing 12 new laws.

The eight laws to be passed include those related to the elderly, health examination and treatment, telecommunications, radio frequency, cryptography, militia, as well as amendments and addendum to articles of the laws on education and natural resource tax.

The twelve laws to be discussed include revised laws on the State Bank of Vietnam and on credit institutions, laws related to the sea, land and house tariffs, adoption, civil sentence execution, information access, energy usage efficiency, food safety, the disabled, postal services and trade arbitrators.

Chairman Trong agreed with the plans and asked the NA Office, Council of Ethnic Minorities and NA committees to cooperate closely with the Government Office and related agencies to prepare carefully for the meeting.

According to the NA Standing Committee, citizens throughout the country have voiced their support to the results of the NA’s 5^th session, saying that the issues discussed in the session were practical and partly alleviated worries of the public such as the stimulus package, management of exports, electricity price hikes and bauxite exploitation in the Central Highlands.