VNA NA passes part of amended Land Law National Assembly deputies passed part of the amended Land Law in the plenary meeting chaired by NA Vice Chairman Mai Thuc Lan yesterday, the 8th working day of the NA�s on-going session. During the session, the general director of the General Department of Land Administration, Bui Xuan Son, on behalf of the Law Drafting Board, the NA's Commission for Economic and Budget Issues and the session's Secretariat, gave explanations and received opinions from NA deputies on the amended and supplemented Land Law. A representative of the session's Secretariat, Tran Thi Kim Van, read the full text of the draft amended and supplemented Land Law. After having discussed, the deputies approved articles 12, 16, 18, 19, 24, 24a, 24b of the Land Law. Sixty deputies contributed their opinions on the Law. Today, May 31, the NA deputies continue their discussion for the approval of the amended and supplemented Land Law in the morning and in the afternoon, they hold group discussion on the draft Law on Cultural Heritage. **** Meeting marks President Ho Chi Minh's birthday in IndiaA meeting to mark the 111th birthday of President Ho Chi Minh was held by the India-Vietnam Friendship Association in New Delhi on May 28. Prominent among those present at the function were Secretary General of the Communist Party of India (CPI), A B Bardhan, Politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) Xitaram Yachuri, and Vietnamese Ambassador to India, Pham Sy Tam. CPI Secretary General Bardhan, pointed out that President Ho Chi Minh set a bright example to not only the Vietnamese people but also people throughout the world. He was a great leader who had devoted his whole life to the country and social progress. Under the leadership of President Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese people had defeated two imperialist forces for national reunification, he said. The India-Vietnam friendship fostered by President Ho Chi Minh would be further developed, concluded the CPI leader. (VNA) **** Party delegation attends Finland Party Congress A delegation of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) attended the Finland Communist Party Congress, held in Turku city from May 19-21. The delegation, led by Hoang Thuy Giang, deputy head of the Party Central Committee's Commission for External Relations, was received by Finland's Communist Party Chairman, Y Hakanen. Mr Giang addressed the Congress, conveying the CPV Central Committee's greetings to them. (VNA) **** International Children's Day celebrated nationwide Activities mark Children's Day in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Many humanitarian and cultural activities are being organised across the country to celebrate International Children's Day, June 1. The Committee for Child Protection and Care of Thua Thien - Hue province held a meeting for good schoolchildren in difficulty and presented gifts to 50 children. The Committee also held a meeting for 700 street children and gave gifts to them. The People's Committee of Hue city implemented a programme, Year of Action For Children. Under this, the malnourished rate among children will be reduced to under 25%; 95% of disadvantaged children go to school, the rate of street children will be lowered by 30% and all communes and wards will have playgrounds for children. The Committee for Child Protection and Care of Da Nang City visited and presented gifts worth VND 10 million to children in orphanages, houses of compassion and Nguyen Dinh Chieu Blind School. They also gave 100 packages of gifts to disadvantaged children in Ngu Hanh Son district. The Committee for Child Protection and Care of Binh Dinh presented gifts to 350 disabled and underprivileged children and gave 21 scholarships, worth totally VND 15 million, to children of poor and priority policy beneficiary families. They also performed free operation for paralysed children and operation smile for 100 children. The Armed Forces of Military Zone 1 contributed VND 150 million to upgrade schools and buy school aids for children in remote and far-flung areas. The Young Pioneers' Newspaper granted Vu A Dinh scholarships for poor and excellent pupils. The newspaper will also organise a camping festival for 60 good pupils who have gained good schooling results and won national and international prizes. **** Vietnamese awarded WHO medal for anti-smoking efforts Parade held in Hanoi to respond to International No-Tobacco Day. Vietnam's Steering Board of the National Programme to Prevent the Harm of Tobacco has been awarded the World Health Organisation medal, entitled �Tobacco or health.� The 2001 award was presented by Ms Pascal Brudon, representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), at a meeting held by the Health Ministry in Hanoi on May 30 in response to the International No-Tobacco Day (May 31). Vietnam is among six countries having been awarded the medal this year. Vietnam's efforts to prevent the harm of smoking in recent years were appreciated by WHO. Vietnam calls for ministries, economic sectors social and mass organizations, local authorities and all the population to take part in the anti-tobacco movement while widely disseminating information about the harmful effects of smoking. Thousands of young people in Hanoi attended the meeting. The General Department of Post and Telecommunications has also issued a set of stamps to highlight the International No-Tobacco Day to prevent the harm of tobacco. About 50.74% of Vietnam's male population and 3.4% of its female population are smoking. They estimatedly burn VND 6,000 billion each year. (VNA) **** Vietnam attends global anti-corruption forum A delegation of the Vietnamese government is attending a global forum against corruption which opened on May 28 in the Hague. The five-member delegation is headed by Deputy Inspector General of the State Inspectorate, Tran Quoc Truong. As planned, the Vietnamese delegation will present a report on measures to fight corruption in Vietnam at the ministerial-level conference on May 30. (VNA) **** Australia to grant Vietnam AUD 73.3 millionAustralian Agency for International Development (AusAID), on May 29, announced its government's assistance programme of AUD 73.3 million to Vietnam in the 2001-2002 fiscal year. The programme will help boost development capacities for Vietnam through education and training co-operation. It will also help to improve the policy-making process, the effective use of the State budget, the development of the private sector, and the country's integration into the global economy. It will also help to improve medical conditions, agricultural production, and Vietnam's rural infrastructure. In the 2001-2002 fiscal year, the Australian government will help Vietnam raise money for the Fund for the Poor, carry out safe water projects in seven Mekong Delta provinces, and improve farming conditions and educational infrastructure in central Quang Ngai province. In education, Australia will co-ordinate with the World Bank to implement primary education universalisation for poor Vietnamese children. It will provide 200 scholarships at its universities in the 2001-2002 school year. (VNA) **** National Assembly�s Ninth Session Exciting first week During the first working week of the National Assembly�s ninth session, NA deputies pooled their discussions on the following issues: Farmers and farm produce: To help farmers, the government has carried out the following measures: Spending a lot of money to buy for temporary stocking one million tonnes of rice and 150,000 tonnes of coffee Relaxing the repayment of farmers� debts and lowering the interest rate for the poor (from 7.2 �8.4% to 5.4-6%) Providing bonus for those who export rice, coffee, vegetables and fruits and pork Free agricultural tax for priority policy beneficiaries and those in natural disaster-hit areas as stipulated by law All poor villages falling in the list of the Programme 135 and all poor households this year will enjoy exemption of agricultural tax; other farming households will enjoy 50% reduction of agricultural tax These measures have been agreed by the people and many NA deputies. With regards to farm produce consumption, deputy Dinh Van Oanh from Nghe An province said: the shift of the economic structure is correct and necessary. People believe in the Party and State. They plant litchi or pinapple when they are told to. But when they have planted, there are no processing factories. They can not sell what they produce. Another deputy added: who will we sell to after farm produces have been processed? Land and land price Land can not make itself hot, but human�s behavior results in the main causes of all hot spots. The Land Law was promulgated in 1987, substituted by another one in 1993 and then amended and supplemented in 1998. The changes have made the law adaptable to the development of life, however it also shows the unsustainability of a law. Deputy Tran Van Dang, deputy Huu Tho of Phu Tho province agreed to the changes, but they underlined that the changes shall have to start from their roots. To this end, the current land use and management work across the country must be reviewed in a scientific manner. As for land price, the deputies unanimously agreed that the government will fix a price frame. According to deputy Nguyen Sinh Hung, the maximum price may be VND 13 million, per one square metre and in cities, it can increase by 50%. Meanwhile, the current price in the old quarter of Hanoi, is about VND 85.8 million for one square metre. On the basis, provinces and cities will fix prices. Deputy Le Minh Hoang of Ho Chi Minh City said: "Investors have projects, management agencies make decisions to withdraw land, and until then land prices for compensation are defined, whereas, it should be done vice versa, that is compensation prices should be discussed with people first." That who benefits most from land (thanks to their information about planning, directly involved in and approve projects) is the question raised at group discussion. Millions of square metres in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have still been laid to waste, and many investors have not deployed their projects for years, how should we deal with these problems? Fighting against corruption Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said "Corruption, bureaucracy and red-tape have not been pushed back, serious cases are still seen in some places." Dealing with the problem, deputies said responsibility shall have to be place on a specific person. The government is seeking a complete solution. Draft law on land communication: motorbikes and crash helmets NA deputies have highly appreciated the discussion and approval of the law on land communication at the current session, and at the same time, pointed out some inappropriate articles of the law. There is an article prohibiting the operation of over-sized and over-loaded trucks while in another article, it stipulates the speed for this kind of vehicle, so it means implicitly accepting their existence. One article regulates the maximum speed of vehicles at 90 kilometres per hour while another article allows the maximum speed of 120 kilometres per hour provided that there is 100-metre space between vehicles. But what is still lacking in the draft law on land communication is that it only provides the rules for the users of traffics vehicles without stipulating the responsibilities of builders and traffic controllers when there is a bridge collapse, or there are a lot of craters on the road or there are no warning boards, so who will be responsible for all this remains an unanswered question. NA deputies paid much attention to crash helmets. Many deputies believed that the final decision shall be able to meet practical requirements and gain popularity. Most group discussions complained about the unchecked import of motorbikes. Currently, Vietnam is considered as having the highest number of motorbikes in the world, totalling seven million. Surveys carried out in Ho Chi Minh City showed that accidents are mostly caused by young and drunken riders. However, the main reasons leading to accidents are roads and vehicles in bad conditions, unclear warning boards and bad driving habits of vehicle users. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
