The 13th session of the 15th National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee opened in Hà Nội on Monday under the chair of NA Chairman Vương Đình Huệ. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The 13th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee opened in Hà Nội on Monday morning.

In his opening remarks, NA Chairman Vương Đình Huệ said the committee will give opinions on the outcomes of the third session of the 15th NA and start preparations for the NA’s fourth session.

The NA Chairman underlined that law-making will be the key content of the fourth session of the NA, slated for later this year, so close coordination with the Government is needed to ensure the best quality of draft laws.  

Following the NA Chairman’s opening remarks, the committee started discussions on the change of purpose of land use for forests, forest land, and rice land with at least two crops a year for implementing the project on the North-South Highway in the 2021-2025 period.

All members of the National Assembly Standing Committee approved a resolution on the change of purpose of land use for forests, forest land, and rice land to promptly implement the construction project on schedule.

The committee proposed the Government complete the conversion dossier and report to the National Assembly at the fourth session in accordance with regulations and competence.

It asked the Government to direct relevant agencies to continue reviewing the area of ​​forests, forest land, and rice land with at least two crops a year to ensure optimal conversion of land with accuracy.

The Government directed the People's Committees of localities involved in the construction project to urgently complete the dossiers of preparation and approval of the district-level land use planning for allocating, revoking, and leasing land.

According to the approved draft resolution, the forest area for land conversion purposes would be more than 1,054 ha, including 111.84 ha of protection forest, 4.45 ha of special-use forest, 802.91 ha of production forest, and 135.43 ha of non-planned forest.

The area of ​​forest land for conversion would be over 1,863 ha, including 138 ha of protection forest land, 4.61 ha of special-use forest land, and 1,721 ha of production forest land.

The area of rice ​​land with two or more crops a year would be over 1,537 hectares.

On January 11, 2022 at the first extraordinary session of the 15th National Assembly in Hà Nội, the NA approved Resolution No 44/2022/QH15 on the North-South Highway construction project in the period of 2021-2025.

The project is planned to pass through 12 provinces and cities of Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, Quảng Ngãi, Bình Định, Phú Yên, Khánh Hoà, Hậu Giang, Kiên Giang, Bạc Liêu, Cà Mau and Cần Thơ.

The land demand for the project would be about 5,481 ha, including about 1,532 ha of wet rice land, about 110 ha of protective forest land, and 1,436 ha of production forest land.

The Government would be in charge of completing the dossiers on the change of land use purpose of forest, forest land and wet-rice land, and submitting it to the NA Standing Committee for consideration before implementing the project.

Also at this session, the NA Standing Committee is scheduled to consider and vote on a draft resolution on the functions, tasks, power and organisational structure of the NA’s Committee for Deputies’ Eligibility. The draft was first discussed at the NA Standing committee in February this year.

A report on ombudsman work in May and June 2022 and a draft resolution of the NA Standing Committee on the supervision of legal documents issued by NA agencies will be tabled for consideration.

The committee will also give opinions on a report on the construction progress of the Trường Sơn Đông road. — VNS