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Aug 25, 2018 / 09:32

Vietnam continues to delay special economic zone bill ratification

The government continues seeking public comments on the draft law of the special administrative-economic zone (SEZ), VnExpress reported.

Vietnam's National Assembly (NA) will not consider the SEZ draft law in the next semiannual session in October, Nguyen Hanh Phuc, chairman of the NA's Office, announced on August 24.
 
Illustrative photo.
Illustrative photo.
According to Phuc, the government is in the process of seeking public comments for the draft law, aiming to have the law approved in the next NA's sitting. 

Last October, the SEZ draft law was submitted to the fourth session of the NA for review, which was then revised for later submission in the fifth session in May 2018. 

In previous discussion sessions, the majority agreed on the necessity of having the SEZ law for the successful establishment of three SEZs in Van Don, Bac Van Phong and Phu Quoc in the context of growing global uncertainties, while safeguarding national security and sovereignty, Nguyen Khac Dinh, head of the National Assembly Committee on Legal Affairs, told local media.

"With expectation that it could make a breakthrough in legal and institutional reform, this new draft law, however, proved to be complicated at an unprecedented level, resulting in diverse opinions among NA deputies, experts and the public," Dinh added.

The NA, thus, agreed on the government's proposal of applying the Law on Land with regard to the duration of land leasing in SEZs, as well as to discard the exceptional case of land leasing tenure of up to 99 years. 

This resulted in the NA's decision to delay the voting on the draft law until the sixth session in October, following the endorsement of over 85% of NA deputies on June 11.

In the latest move, the draft law has been again delayed submitting to the NA beyond the upcoming sixth session.