Hanoi, 26 July 2005 — In Hanoi today, members of National Assembly met for a thorough briefing on two key pieces of draft business legislation—the Unified Enterprise Law (UEL) and the Common Investment Law (CIL). Both laws are expected to be formally discussed in the next session of the National Assembly.
The Forum, which was organized jointly by the Office of National Assembly and the International Finance Corporation’s Mekong Private Sector Development Facility (IFC-MPDF), provided participants with a 70 page Briefing Book. To help law makers to quickly inform themselves about the new legislation, the document summarizes key features of the proposed legislation and the issues raised and opinions given during the drafting and consultation process. The Briefing Book also features comprehensive summaries of 25 research papers and reports that MPDF and other donors provided to the drafting committee over the last year.
The Briefing Book was jointly developed by the Centre for Information, Library and Research Services (CILRS) of the Office of National Assembly, and IFC-MPDF. “Our goal in developing the Briefing Book was to help busy Members of the National Assembly access the full range of opinions on the UEL and CIL. Thanks to the proactive and professional assistance provided by MPDF, we were able to develop a product that is objective, comprehensive, and easy to read,” said Mr. Ngo Duc Manh, the Director of CILRS. “We hope the document will be a useful tool for Members to use in considering and making final decisions on the two laws. For those who want more in-depth information, we will make available copies of the full reports summarized in the Briefing Book. If this model for briefing legislators is successful, we will follow it in future.”
The full-day event was attended by approximately 150 participants, including NA members, staff of key NA standing committees, government officials, representatives from the business community and other interested parties. A presentation on how to effectively use the Briefing Book was provided, and a significant amount of time allocated to enable participants to discuss draft versions of the two laws.
“The drafting teams of both the UEL and CIL sought a great deal of input and feedback from the business and Donor communities while developing the new laws,” said Ms. Nguyen Phuong Quynh Trang, Manager of IFC-MPDF’s Business Enabling Environment Program. “But to date, Members of the National Assembly, who are charged with passing the laws, have not had easy access to this wealth of information. Given the importance of the UEL and CIL to the development of Vietnam’s private sector, and as the country prepares to join WTO, MPDF felt it was crucial to provide legislators with a comprehensive briefing session and materials to help them fully engage in discussion on the new laws.”
Another Forum to brief legislators based in the south will be organized by NA and IFC-MPDF in Ho Chi Minh City this Friday.
(CILRS, Office of National Assembly The Centre for Information, Library and Research Services, was established under Resolution No.02 NQ/UBTVQH9 of October 17, 1992 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly as a department of the Office of the Vietnam National Assembly (ONA). The center is under the direct guidance of the ONA chairman. CILRS has three main functions: Carrying out activities on information, library, research and research management services to support the NA, the members of Parliament, the organs of the NA and the ONA, Deploying press, publication, propaganda (Parliamentary Public Information), history, museum services concerning the Vietnam NA.; Assisting the ONA’s leaders in managing and implementing international cooperation projects.)
