The Presidential Office announce the President’s order to promulgate laws and ordinance. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The Presidential Office held a press conference in Hà Nội on Thursday to announce the President’s order to promulgate 15 laws and one ordinance which were adopted recently by the 15th National Assembly (NA).

These include a law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on the Election of Deputies to the NA and People's Councils; amended Criminal Procedure Code; revised Criminal Code; amended Law on Vietnamese Nationality and revised Law on Handling of Administrative Violations.

Two new laws passed are Law on Cadres and Civil Servants, and Law on Inspection.

At the conference, ministries’ leaders told the press about the laws’ new features.

Speaking about the amended Criminal Code, Senior Lieutenant General Lê Quốc Hùng, Deputy Minister of Public Security, said one major change is the abolition of the death penalty for eight offences: activities aimed at overthrowing the people's administration, espionage, destruction of physical and technical foundations of the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam; manufacturing and trading counterfeit medicines for treatment and prevention; illegal transportation of narcotics; embezzlement; bribery; and undermining peace and waging aggressive wars.

Persons sentenced to life imprisonment for embezzlement or bribery shall only be eligible for a sentence reduction if they have voluntarily returned at least three-quarters of the embezzled or bribed assets and have actively cooperated with competent authorities in detecting, investigating and handling crimes or have made significant contributions, he said.

He said the 1985 Criminal Code included 44 offences punishable by death, but by 2025, only 10 offences will carry the death penalty. This move aligns with international trends that increasingly limit the application of the death penalty both in legislation and in practice.

Among the 193 UN member states, only slightly over 50 countries still retain the death penalty in their legal systems, he said, adding that the reform serves to facilitate international cooperation, strengthening mutual trust and partnerships, and demonstrates the responsibility and competence of Việt Nam's State management and law enforcement agencies, he said.

Senior Lieutenant General Hùng also highlighted the doubling of monetary penalties for 24 offences.

This increase focuses on crimes involving counterfeit goods, environmental violations, food safety and corruption.

Assessing public employees by KPI

Trương Hải Long, deputy minister of Home Affairs, said one of the new features of the newly-approved Law on Cadres and Civil Servants is to enhance the effectiveness of evaluating and screening cadres and civil servants.

Their performance will be rated based on key performance indicators (KPI).

The law also refines regulations on disciplinary actions for cadres and civil servants. It removes the disciplinary form of demotion for civil servants holding leadership or managerial positions, and eliminates the salary downgrade as a disciplinary measure, he said.

Deputy Minister of Finance Hồ Sỹ Hùng said the Law on Investment in the Form of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) stipulates that provincial-level people’s committees may delegate authority to commune-level local governments to implement PPP projects within their management scope, in line with the policy of restructuring the two-tier local government system.

Meanwhile, the law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on the Election of Deputies to the NA and People’s Councils aims to implement the policy of streamlining the organisational structure of agencies within the political system.

The amended law adjusts and shortens the timeline for certain steps in the election process to allow for early elections on March 15, 2026.

All of the laws and ordinance took effect on July 1, 2025. — VNS