Institutional reform in the new era with the National Assembly's leading role

In his opening remarks at the Forum, Central Committee member of the Communist Party and Chair of the National Assembly’s Committee on Law and Justice Hoang Thanh Tung emphasized that the Forum is an “important initiative proposed by National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man,” creating a space for in-depth dialogue between the National Assembly and the bodies involved in the legislative process, National Assembly members, scholars, experts, and practitioners. Through this, the National Assembly aims to listen, gather intellect, and solicit recommendations to continue innovating the approach to law-making, enhance the quality of legislative activities, and closely link law-making with law enforcement.

According to Mr. Hoang Thanh Tung, the Forum takes place in the context where the Politburo has issued Resolution No. 66-NQ/TW, identifying the fundamental renovation of law-making and law enforcement as a “breakthrough of breakthroughs,” providing an institutional foundation for rapid and sustainable development, and leading the country towards being “prosperous, strong, and powerful” under the leadership of the Party. The draft Political Report submitted to the 14th National Party Congress also sets the goal of continuing to perfect a coherent, transparent, and feasible legal system that serves modern management and governance, and promotes innovation.

Looking back at the 15th National Assembly’s term, legislative work achieved many remarkable results amid the country’s challenges from the pandemic, natural disasters, and global economic and political fluctuations. The National Assembly enacted a large number of laws and resolutions with steadily improving quality, clearly reflecting the spirit of “creation – accompaniment – listening – guiding development". However, in response to new demands, the legal system still has limitations and shortcomings regarding coherence, stability, and transparency; some provisions have not kept pace with the rapid developments in practice, requiring further strong improvement.

From this practical context, the introductory report at the Forum proposed six major groups of issues for delegates to focus their discussions and provide recommendations. Foremost among these is the requirement to innovate legislative thinking in a proactive, constructive manner that guides development. The legal system needs to shift from a mindset of “absolute safety” to accepting controlled risks, expanding the space for innovation, including boldly legislating controlled experimental mechanisms (sandbox), strengthening policy foresight, and building a team of “institutional architects” with a comprehensive, cross-sectoral vision.

The second group of issues is the improvement of institutions for a modern market economy in the context of digital transformation, green economy, circular economy, and new economic models. According to the Chair of the National Assembly's Committee on Law and Justice, the legal framework for these areas "must be built to stay one step ahead, rather than merely follow practice", thereby turning institutions and economic laws into a driving force for rapid and sustainable growth, enhancing national competitiveness, and striving to place Viet Nam's investment environment among the regional leaders.

The third issue concerns the improvement of laws to operate effectively the two-level local government model under the principle of "local decision-making, local implementation, local accountability". This requires synchronized amendments and supplements to the relevant legal system before 2027, ensuring increased decentralization and delegation of authority coupled with mechanisms for power control, while fully considering the commune level - the closest level of government to the people - in terms of organizational structure, human resources, financial resources, and operational conditions.

The fourth group of issues relates to the continues improvement of laws on human rights and citizens' rights in the digital era. Alongside ensuring and protecting privacy, personal data, and access to digital services, the legal frameworks for health, education, and social security also need to be reviewed and completed to provide a legal foundation for building a modern, humane, and inclusive security system where no one is left behind.

The fifth issue emphasizes the need to improve laws on the prevention and combat of corruption, negativity, and waste, as well as the control of power. Hoang Thanh Tung stated that it is necessary to continue closing “legal loopholes,” enhance transparency at all stages of the process of drafting and promulgating legal documents, eliminate the “ask–grant” mechanism, while strengthening supervision and inspection of law enforcement, ensuring the effective recovery of corrupt assets, and consolidating public trust.

The sixth issue concerns the completion of the legal system’s structure, the innovation of the legislative process, and the working methods of the entities involved in this process. Streamlining, reducing hierarchical levels, and narrowing the types of legal documents are considered necessary, but must be linked with clarifying the criteria for general laws versus specialized laws, distinguishing between public and private law; shortening the legislative timeline while improving the quality of each stage, enhancing transparency, accountability, and reporting, and thoroughly addressing the issue of “outstanding legal guiding documents” for law enforcement.

According to the Chair of the National Assembly’s Committee on Law and Justice, with these key discussion topics, the first Forum on Law-Making “is not only an occasion to review the legislative work of the 15th term, but more importantly, to determine a new direction for the 16th term and subsequent terms.” He expressed the hope that the opinions raised at the Forum would help propose feasible solutions, build on the achievements attained, address limitations, and make legislative work increasingly high-quality and effective.

From this Forum, the emphasized message is that the National Assembly continues to maintain its role as the body that “leads the way” in the process of institutional improvement, so that the law truly becomes a driving force for national development in the new era, meeting the expectations of the Party, the State, and the people.