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.
Agence France Presse - December 13, 2001.
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