National Assembly Deputy Nguyễn Tâm Hùng from the southern province of Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu raises his opinion about the draft amended Law on Archives at the seventh session of the 15th NA on Friday. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The National Assembly (NA) continued its agenda on Friday, focusing on the right of access to information as part of the draft amended Law on Archives.

Deputy Lê Thị Thanh Lam from the southern province of Hậu Giang suggested that the draft law should carefully evaluate the necessity of not designating archival services as a conditional business investment sector.

She argued that imposing business conditions on archival services contradicts the policy ensuring access to information for agencies, organisations and individuals.

Emphasising that archiving was the activity of preserving documents to maintain and promote the value of archival materials, serving the cause of national construction and defence and ensuring citizens' right of access to information, Deputy Trần Thị Thu Đông from the southern province of Bạc Liêu proposed adding a provision to Article 61 to ensure the right of access to information for individuals, organisations and agencies in society.

This addition ensures consistency between the Law on Archives and other legal documents. Additionally, it is essential to define who is allowed access to electronic document sources.

For documents serving the operations of State administrative agencies, Đông suggested expanding access rights to all agencies, organisations and individuals in society to clearly define their rights and obligations in specific administrative legal relations. This could also help reduce cumbersome administrative procedures and significantly improve state management efficiency.

Regarding archival services as a conditional business sector, Minister of Home Affairs Phạm Thị Thanh Trà stated that while the law does not stipulate this, the specialised nature of archival materials necessitates specific regulations.

“Specifically regulating business conditions for archival services at different levels is necessary to reflect reality and encourage and promote the socialisation of archival activities," Trà said.

In the report on the explanation, reception and revision of the draft amended Law on Archives, presented by the General Secretary of the NA and Chairman of its Office Bùi Văn Cường, it was noted that the amended draft law now comprises eight chapters with 65 articles.

The draft amended law has been developed to institutionalise the Party's policy on creating a legal system that promotes innovation, digital transformation, and the development of archival products and services to serve the public and effectively contribute to national construction, defence and international integration.

The draft amended law is built on the principle of inheriting, promoting and improving the 2011 Law on Archives provisions.

The NA Standing Committee has accepted the opinions of NA deputies regarding the regulation that permanent archival documents of communes are to be submitted to the state historical archives at the provincial level. They have also revised Article 18 on the agencies and organisations that submit documents to the state historical archives to ensure consistency.

Cường stated that some current laws have specific provisions regarding archival preservation regimes, retention periods, and the issuance of copies. If these archival provisions were abolished in favour of uniformity under the Law on Archives, it would not be appropriate given the specialised nature of archival activities in some ministries and sectors and would be impractical.

Therefore, to ensure that the archival activities of the Vietnam National Archives are consistent with the principles of archival activities as prescribed by the Law on Archives, while also accommodating the archival activities of some specialised sectors, the NA Standing Committee has directed the addition of an article on the application of the Law on Archives and related legislation, as reflected in Article 3 of the draft Law. — VNS