NA Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn speaks at the meeting on Thursday.— VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

HÀ NỘI — The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on Thursday reviewed the draft Law on amendments and supplements to several articles of 10 laws governing administrative procedures and business conditions in agriculture and environment.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Nguyễn Hoàng Hiệp said the bill covers the laws on plant protection and quarantine, animal husbandry, dykes, geology and minerals, hydrometeorology, water resources, veterinary medicine, irrigation, fisheries and crop production.

The draft focuses on cutting and simplifying administrative procedures and business conditions while pushing authority for handling those procedures down to lower levels.

It also revises several articles to tighten consistency and coherence across the legal framework.

The drafting agency proposed eliminating 38 administrative procedures and 40 business conditions, and simplifying another 13 procedures.

The reforms are expected to slash total processing time by 904 days and trim an estimated VNĐ189.9 billion (US$7.3 million) in compliance costs.

NA Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn described the bill as a breakthrough to clear legal bottlenecks and create a more supportive environment for enterprises in the sector.

The amendments must deliver effective enforcement without leaving regulatory gaps, he said.

Mẫn also urged legal codification of technology-driven post-inspection mechanisms, including product traceability systems and QR codes, along with clear rules on local inspection and supervision funding to prevent lax oversight that could erode agricultural product quality.

Decentralisation and delegation of authority must go hand in hand with a single nationwide system of technical standards and regulations, he added.

Concluding the discussion, NA Vice Chairman Nguyễn Hồng Diên said the drafting agency would bear full responsibility for incorporating feedback, refining the draft, and ensuring quality before submitting it to the Government for approval and then to deputies.

The bill must be completed on schedule, with the deadline set for July 25.

At the meeting, lawmakers also heard summary appraisal reports on the pre-feasibility study for the Ring Road 5 project in the Hà Nội Capital Region and a draft resolution adjusting the investment policy for the Lào Cai-Hà Nội-Hải Phòng railway project. — VNA/VNS