Lawmakers discuss special mechanisms to develop HCM City

At the November 20 sitting

Discussing the draft resolution at the ongoing fourth sitting of the 14^th National Assembly (NA) in Hanoi, on November 20, many of the legislators advocated that it is the right time for the NA to issue special policies and mechanisms for HCM City, which they stated will enable the city to further tap into its potential and advantages and make much greater contributions to the country’s development.

According to deputy Duong Minh Tuan (Ba Ria-Vung Tau), amid the emerging challenges facing HCM City over recent years, such as traffic congestion, food safety, inundation and unsustainability concerning labour, jobs and population growth, a new mechanism to help the city to deal with those difficulties is of urgent need at present.

The resolution will be a tool powerful enough to accelerate HCM City’s development in the time ahead, with the spirit of both serving the city and serving the general national development cause, Tuan said, expressing his hope that HCM City would continue to develop as a southern economic hub, with further contributions to the society’s development and the State budget.

Deputy Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam (HCM City) stated that following 30 years of Doi Moi (Renewal), the measures created for the city by the Party, State, NA and Government have been losing their flexibility to some extent, triggering the need for new breakthrough mechanisms and policies which are special and more flexible.

Debating the pilot of the People’s Council’s land decision authority, some lawmakers agreed on the decentralisation of the decision-making rights on the transfer of rice land use purposes to the HCM City People’s Council. However, they stressed the need to set the maximum limit on the area of rice cultivation land to be transferred, in terms of its use purposes.

In regards to the pilot of tax increases, deputy Nguyen Thi Kim Be (Kien Giang) agreed on the increases of certain tax policies, but proposed the assessment of the enclosed impacts, as the rampant increases will influence HCM City’s competitiveness and the investment encouragement in the city, especially the encouragement of start-up development.

In support of permitting HCM City to decide certain taxes and fees in accordance with the local State management demand, the NA deputies stressed the need to strictly comply with the process of building and evaluating the impacts of the new policies and mechanisms after the resolution is approved, to expand the social investigation over these policies in line with the law, and to avoid abusing the tax and fee increase to prevent the adverse impacts on the investment environment and the people’s legitimate rights.