Draft Law on SEZs potentially remains to be put on hold
By Anh Nguyen
August 07, 2018 | 04:55 PM GMT+7
It is highly likely that the draft Law on Special Administrative-Economic Units will not be approved in the next meeting session of the National Assembly in November this year.
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This draft Law is not included in Standing Committee's agenda held tomorrow on August 8 as previously proposed and possibly it will also not be included in the agenda in September and October this year.
According to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly (NA), seven bills were considered and commented at this meeting.
Out of the seven proposed draft laws to be considered and discussed by the NA at this session such as Education Law (amended), Anti-Corruption Law (amended), Law on Amnesty (amended), Cultivation Law, etc., the draft Law on Special Administrative-Economic Units (otherwise commonly known as special economic zones - SEZs) at Van Don, Bac Van Phong and Phu Quoc is not one of them.
In addition, it is highly likely that this draft law will continue not to be considered in both meeting sessions of the Standing Committee of the NA in September and October this year.
The draft law was initially submitted to the NA for approval in the fourth plenary session held in last November but with the notice, the long expected regulations to gear up the Vietnam's economy still put on suspension.
However, shortly after that the draft law on Special Administrative-Economic Units remains not to be approved in the fifth plenary session of the National Assembly even when the recently overheated matter of a land lease term of 99 years applying at special economic zones on a trial basis had been affirmed to be shortened.
According to Dr. Nguyen Duc Thanh, head of Vietnam Institute For Economic and Policy Research, the current draft law has failed to do the single most important thing which is to create breakthroughs in the business environment and administrative institutions.
At the same time, the draft law is too focusing on small details favoring small groups of interests, which is not good for a special economic zone.
According to Nguyen Hanh Phuc, secretary general of the NA cum spokesman of NA, currently this draft law is still being carefully reviewed based on people’s opinions.
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