THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2001
Vietnam MPs approve constitutional revision
HANOI: Vietnam's communist-dominated parliament approved the country's first constitutional revision in a decade Wednesday, adopting a string of amendments which the authorities say will guarantee a level playing field for the private sector.
After line-by-line votes over the past few days on each of the 32 amendments put forward by the government, MPs voted to approve the amended constitution as a whole, the National Assembly's office said.
National Assembly officials could offer no breakdown of the vote and declined even to confirm that all 32 of the amendments originally proposed had been maintained in the final draft which was put to the vote.
As with all ordinary proceedings of the still largely rubber-stamp legislature, foreign correspondents were barred from the session.
Most of the amendments proposed by the government were a matter of a few words only.
Most attention has focussed on a new passage which Planning and Investment Minister Tran Xuan Gia told Vietnamese and foreign businessmen last week would give constitutional protection to the right of private enterprise to a level playing field with the state sector.
"All economic sectors irrespective of ownership or being foreign or local are important components of market, socialist-oriented economy... and cooperate and compete with each other in accordance with the laws," says the passage, which was already adopted by a five-yearly congress of the ruling communist party earlier this year.
The official media have also made much of a new clause which will redefine Vietnam as a "socialist law-governed state".
The communist authorities have come under mounting pressure from international donors to do more to promote the rule of law by establishing a clearer separation of powers between the government and legislature, and the still all-powerful communist party.
A commitment in the 1992 constitution that "primary education be compulsory and free of charge" for all was also due to be dropped under the proposed changes.
The provision had become something of an embarrassment over the past decade as the government imposed fees for school textbooks and other teaching materials.
The National Assembly already discussed the draft changes at its last session in June before the communist authorities launched 44 days of public consultations.
The new constitution will now be passed to President Tran Duc Luong for signature, which he would normally be expected to give within 15 days. ( AFP )
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