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On the morning of November 28, the National Assembly discussed the draft Law on Planning (amended). Mr. Pham Trong Nhan, a member of the Economic and Financial Committee, said that the revised Law must be truly open to new drivers, "it cannot be a rigid framework that slows down all opportunities."
He commented that the current speed of planning adjustment is still linear, taking from 12 to 18 months. According to him, this cannot keep up with new waves such as semiconductors, data centers, clean energy, innovation, logistics and international finance.
"These opportunities cannot wait for the process," he commented.



Mr. Pham Trong Nhan, a member of the Economic and Financial Committee, spoke on the morning of November 28. Photo:  National Assembly Media

Mr. Nguyen Tam Hung, a member of the National Defense, Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, also said that many key projects are being delayed due to prolonged internal processes, increasing costs and reducing the competitiveness of the economy.
According to him, investors also complained about some detailed plans that have been completed, but still have to go through many rounds of internal appraisal at different agencies, instead of a one-stop process. "This forces them to race against time, people, and travel between agencies many times just to explain the content that has been clarified in the electronic documents," the delegate said.

Because the process is prolonged, he said that investor confidence is eroded, many businesses are forced to suspend and withdraw from potential projects. Faced with this situation, he suggested considering legalizing an additional mechanism for submitting synchronous electronic documents with a mandatory response deadline from each management agency.
Mr. Pham Trong Nhan proposed adding a basis for adjusting the plan when the project has "national development opportunities, spillover effects and requires urgent implementation", in addition to traditional bases such as natural disasters, fluctuations, and boundary mergers.

Along with that, he said that it is necessary to assign the Government to clearly quantify the opportunity threshold in terms of capital scale, technology content, impact on productivity, high-quality jobs, and supply chain connectivity. For projects that meet these criteria, the Government can allow a minimum reduction of 50% of the appraisal time, with a maximum period of 6 months.
"Speed ​​must become a design criterion in the law, if we really want data centers, semiconductors, innovation, or international finance to become the driving force for double-digit growth," he said.

According to current regulations, the appraisal time for adjusting national planning is 75 days, approved within 90 days, equivalent to about 5.5 months. The time for the appraisal and approval process for adjusting regional and provincial planning is similar. National Assembly deputies said that the appraisal time,Planning adjustments need to be shortened when amending the law.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Suu, Deputy Head of the Hue City Delegation, said that it is necessary to set specific deadlines for each step to avoid the process of adjusting the planning being prolonged, causing congestion for investment activities. Specifically, she proposed completing the planning appraisal within 60 days, approving the adjustment within 30 days and announcing it within 15 days. In case of adjustment due to natural disasters, epidemics or other urgent changes, the procedures should follow a shortened procedure of a maximum of 3 working days.
Former Chairman of Quang Tri Province, Ha Sy Dong, suggested merging the content of collecting opinions, explanations and appraisals into a connected process, applying parallel appraisals to reduce the time for processing documents. He suggested adding conditions for adjustment when there are key projects, major strategic opportunities, changes in technology or when there are high data errors...

Explaining later, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang said that the drafting agency has completed the regulations on the simultaneous preparation and order of approval and adjustment of planning. The Minister informed that many other procedures have also been simplified.
Specifically, the law has changed the task to the form of proposing planning with simpler content. The plans are also adjusted simultaneously. With the simplified planning adjustment process, investors do not have to carry out procedures for requesting policy, appraising planning adjustments and assessing the strategic environment, according to the Minister.
The National Assembly is expected to vote to pass the draft Law on Planning (amended) on the morning of December 10.

Anh Tu
According to VnExpress