The 11^th National Assembly (NA) resumed its 10^th session of in Hanoi on November 21 to discuss major contents of the agenda.

Deputies focused their discussions on Vietnam’s accession to the World Trade Organisation, and gave their opinions to the question “How to seize opportunities and overcome challenges when Vietnam fully integrates into the world economy?”

Regarding education and training, deputies emphasised the need to train highly skilled and knowledgeable human resources for international integration. Many deputies said that the key issue of the education sector is that it should strongly develop human resources in keeping with social demands. Some proposed that the government and the education sector should use part of its annual revenue to invest in training thousands of outstanding Vietnamese students who are selected to study in scientific and technological fields in foreign countries and then to play a key role in helping the education sector integrate into the world.

Deputies also discussed the necessity of modernising rural areas, improving macro-management as well as helping businesses when they face tough competition in the international market.

Regarding the agricultural and rural sector, many NA deputies raised questions about how the State will help farmers – the biggest labour force to compete with other countries in selling agricultural products.

NA deputies called for more effective and appropriate investment in the construction of infrastructure facilities such as ports, irrigation and transport systems, agro-forestry-fishery development, breed research and technology transfer to help farmers enhance product quality. They also proposed further checking and removing unnecessary fees to reduce farmers’ burden.

NA deputies mentioned measures to help Vietnamese enterprises sharpen their competitive edge in the context of international economic integration. 2007 will be Vietnam’s first year of joining the WTO. Right from now, they said, the Government will have to prepare resources and iron out certain snags in the economic integration process. The State will have to build State-owned enterprises into a key force to increase capital in the integration process, while providing indirect support for private enterprises in the areas of training, advertising and trade promotion. For foreign-direct investment enterprises, the State will have to encourage more enterprises to invest in hi-tech development rather than in low-effective assembly and processing areas.

In the second phase of the NA session, the National Assembly will consider and ratify the protocol on Vietnam’s entry to the World Trade Organisation, the final step in Vietnam’s bid to join the WTO.