In fact, the number of draft laws which were approved by the NA has increased remarkably in recent years. The quality of these laws has also been raised to help institutionalise Party and State policies aimed at boosting socio-economic development and maintaining political stability and social order and security. Vietnam is in the process of international integration, therefore, the finalisation of the legal system is one of the country’s important tasks.

Many issues of high legal value which were not mentioned in the previous legal documents have been institutionalised this time. They include trading in real estates, lawyers’ activities, HIV/AIDS treatment, donation and grafting of tissues and body parts, and sending workers abroad. With new amendments, these laws help protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers and lived up to the aspirations of local people. Among these laws are the Law on Notaries, amendments to the Labour Code, the Law on Residence, the Law on Gender Equality and the Law on Vocational Training.

With the approval of a number of laws at the current session, the law-making process has been renewed in terms of both speed and efficiency. Time for discussions has been shortened to focus on big issues that need different opinions at plenary sessions instead of in-group discussions as before. After being debated and amended, many draft laws were approved within one day.

These improvements were attributed to the great efforts of law-drafting agencies which had spent much time studying and taking into account amendments concerning social relations. The agencies reviewed the implementation of the existing laws to draw shortcomings that need to be avoided during discussing amendments and supplements to these laws. Therefore, the quality of draft laws has been much improved.

In an interview with VOV, NA deputy Phan Trung Ly from central Nghe An province said the legislature has seen much progress in the law-making process in recent times. Despite the increasing number of laws, the quality of these laws has been guaranteed. Thanks to thorough preparations, many draft laws were approved at a single session. However, he said draft laws and ordinances still reveal shortcomings because the drafting has been carried out by the Government and relevant agencies. Therefore, many laws trend towards management, which creates favourable conditions for the State but causes difficulties for those subject to the laws.

Several laws are too general and still need decrees to guide the implementation due to a lack of forecasting. This is why Vietnamese laws have to be amended frequently.

The overlapping among legal documents is also an obstacle to the implementation of the law when an issue is often amended in different legal documents.

Vietnam is perfecting its legal system to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its legislation progress will facilitate the integration process. Vo Minh Phuong, NA deputy from the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong said: “In preparation for WTO entry negotiations, the Government and the National Assembly has paid special attention to perfecting draft laws to meet international norms and practices to keep up with global integration. Basically, most existing issued and revised laws have met the requirements for socio-economic development towards equal integration into the common playing field which we are going to join.”

With what we have achieved so far at the current session, we are confident that the law-making process of the National Assembly will make further progress, meeting urgent requirements for international integration.