National Assembly Standing Committee members spent the whole morning yesterday discussing the draft Capital Law.

Ha Hung Cuong, Minister of Justice, said preparations for compiling the law started in 2009. Since then the draft law has been discussed several times by the NA Standing Committee and the National Assembly full house meeting. However, it has still not gotten the approval of the NA, particularly the provisions on policy and financial mechanism.

The draft Capital Law has four chapters and 33 articles about the capital. It lists 16 specific policies and mechanisms for the city as the nation's political and administrative centre. These focus on seven areas: planning; culture; education-training; science-technology; environment – land; economics-finance; and security and social law and order.

The NA Legal Committee, acting as the appraisal body of the law, agrees on the necessity of issuing the Capital Law. It says that once it is approved by the National Assembly, it will become a solid legal foundation for the construction, development, and management of Ha Noi - Capital of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.

Relating to the proposal to take "Khue Van Cac" (Pavilion of the Constellation of Literature in the Van Mieu Temple of Literature) as Ha Noi's symbol, Dao Trong Thi, Chairman of the Committee on Culture, Education, Youth and Children and Phung Van Hien, Chairman of the Committee on Finance and Budget expressed support for the proposal. However, Truong Thi Mai, Chairwoman of the Committee for Social Affairs, asked for a more convincing explanation of the selection of Khue Van Cac over other places.

Discussing fees/charges levied on certain services in Ha Noi as written in Article 23, they agreed that the fees/charges could be up to twice the amounts regulated by the government and the Ministry of Finance. The higher fees/charges only apply to the fields of environment and transport.

Regarding Article 21, which deals with resident management, participants agreed on the need to introduce tough administrative measures to reduce immigration into the city. These measures should differ from provision 1 of Article 20 of the Residence Law.

The National Assembly Standing Committee also discussed the draft law against terrorosm yesterday. The law is intended to provide a legal framework for the prevention of terrorism in Viet Nam as well as international co-operation against terrorism.

VNA