On the afternoon of August 7, at the Government headquarters, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Head of the Steering Committee for reviewing and handling difficulties in the system of legal documents, chaired the Steering Committee's meeting.

Also attending the meeting were Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee; Minister, Head of the Government Office Tran Van Son, Deputy Head of the Committee; Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, Deputy Head of the Committee; leaders of ministries, branches, agencies under the Government, Committees of the National Assembly, Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) as members of the Steering Committee.

According to Decision No. 603/QD-TTg dated July 8, 2024 of the Prime Minister on the establishment of the Steering Committee, the Steering Committee has the function of assisting the Prime Minister in researching, directing, coordinating the review and handling of problems in the system of legal documents.

After the Steering Committee was established, on July 8, 2024, the Government Standing Committee and the Steering Committee held their first meeting to identify key tasks and solutions, clearly identifying the tasks that the Ministry of Justice (Standing Body of the Steering Committee) and ministries, branches and localities need to focus on implementing.

According to the Ministry of Justice, to date it has received reports from 15 ministries, ministerial-level agencies, 55 localities and a number of associations and enterprises on reviewing legal documents; at the same time, it has received 594 recommendations on 13 laws.

Based on the review, the Ministry of Justice and the Steering Committee's working group have compiled and classified urgent problems and shortcomings that need to be addressed in 13 laws to remove difficulties and bottlenecks to promote growth, control inflation and stabilize the macro-economy in the current context.

Of which, the Investment Law has 4 groups of contents; the Public Investment Law has 7 groups of contents; the Law on Investment under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP Law) has 5 groups of contents; the Enterprise Law has 1 content; the Law on Planning and the Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of 37 Laws related to planning have 10 groups of contents; the State Budget Law has 5 groups of contents; the Tax Administration Law has 5 groups of contents; the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets has 9 groups of contents; the Accounting Law has 7 groups of contents; the Law on National Reserves has 2 groups of contents; the Law on Independent Auditing has 7 groups of contents; the Securities Law has 8 groups of contents.

After listening to the opinions and concluding the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh acknowledged and welcomed the Ministry of Justice (Standing Body of the Steering Committee) for promptly coordinating with ministries, branches and localities, proactively organizing and implementing activities according to task requirements; thanked the National Assembly and its agencies for always being determined and accompanying the Government and its agencies in reviewing and removing legal obstacles.

The Prime Minister basically agreed with the content of the prepared documents, highly appreciated the opinions expressed at the meeting; assigned the Standing Agency of the Steering Committee to preside over and coordinate with ministries, branches and localities to absorb valid opinions, continue to complete the documents, and prepare the content of the next meeting of the Steering Committee.

The Prime Minister clearly stated that the guiding viewpoint is that the review and handling of difficulties in the system of legal documents must originate from practice, respect practice, closely follow practice, and take practice as a measure; what is ripe, clear, proven correct by practice, effectively implemented, and agreed by the majority, should continue to be implemented and legalized; the removal of difficulties contributes to continuing to perfect the legal system in the spirit of inheritance and development, adjustment and supplementation, learning from experience while doing, not being perfectionist, not hasty, doing easy things first, difficult things later; taking people and businesses as the center and subject, creating breakthroughs, removing difficulties for people and businesses.

The scope and objects are urgent problems that need to be handled and resolved to contribute to stabilizing the macro-economy, controlling inflation, promoting growth, ensuring major balances of the economy, creating jobs and livelihoods for the people, clearing and effectively using all resources for development, taking public investment and State resources as the guide and activating other legal resources; at the same time, focusing on key points, not spreading out.

The principle of review and handling is to focus on urgent and truly necessary issues, creating breakthroughs based on thorough, impartial and objective research and impact assessment; promoting decentralization and delegation of authority along with resource allocation, improving implementation capacity associated with designing tools to strengthen inspection and examination; reducing administrative procedures, inconvenience, harassment, preventing corruption and negativity.

Regarding the legal problems of 13 laws as reported by the Ministry of Justice, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment to take the lead in coordinating with relevant agencies to urgently research and develop a draft law amending many laws under the State management of the Ministry of Planning and Investment; the Ministry of Finance to take the lead in coordinating with relevant agencies to urgently research and develop a draft law amending many laws under the State management of the Ministry of Finance.

The Ministry of Justice coordinates and ensures that the procedures for drafting laws are in accordance with regulations. Ministries, branches and localities continue to review legal documents, make proposals and send them to the Ministry of Justice and relevant agencies for synthesis. Agencies coordinate early and remotely with agencies of the National Assembly, seek opinions from experts and scientists, and create consensus on issues with different opinions.

The Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance and relevant agencies to make greater efforts, endeavors and determination, focus maximum resources on human resources, facilities and finance for this work, prepare carefully and strive to submit the above-mentioned draft laws to the National Assembly for approval at the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly (October 2024), ensuring high feasibility and effectiveness when the laws come into effect.