On March 18, at the 55th session, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Representative Agencies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam abroad.
Presenting a summary of the Submission of the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Representative Agencies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam abroad, Politburo Member, Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung said that the draft Law supplements the scope, functions, and tasks of representative agencies, including foreign affairs and new areas of cooperation that have not been institutionalized in the Law.
The draft Law also supplements the authority of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in deciding on the extension of the term of office of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. At the same time, directing the head of the Representative Agency to return to the country based on the requirements of foreign affairs or management.
The draft Law also supplements a number of regimes and policies for representative agency members and relatives, including allowing minor children to follow representative agency members to be "guaranteed" instead of "partially supporting" tuition fees in the receiving country and costs of purchasing medical examination and treatment insurance, and enjoying airfare benefits.
In the preliminary thẩm tra report, Chairman of the National Defense, Security and Foreign Affairs Committee Le Tan Toi said that besides the contents agreed upon, the thẩm tra agency proposed to continue to review carefully to ensure consistency with relevant legal documents.
Contributing opinions to the draft law, Politburo Member, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man emphasized the need to supplement regulations on the responsibility of representative agencies in early warning of technical barriers and trade remedy lawsuits against Vietnamese goods, helping domestic enterprises proactively respond instead of having to deal with the tip of the iceberg when things are already done.
The National Assembly Chairwoman suggested that it is necessary to analyze more deeply the role of representative agencies in the context that new generation free trade agreements (FTAs) are having a profound impact on people and businesses.
From the reality of the situation in the Middle East, Iran, and some Latin American countries, the National Assembly Chairman noted that the issue of citizen protection must shift from incident-based to proactive forecasting and emergency response; there must be a rapid response mechanism in citizen rescue cases.
According to the National Assembly Chairwoman, it is necessary to legalize the coordination process with Vietnamese associations in the locality. The strength of the community is the extended arm of the Representative Agency in accessing emergency support, and state resources sometimes cannot cover everything.
Regarding the head of the Representative Agency, the National Assembly Chairwoman said that, according to regulations, the Ambassador is the person representing the State in the host country.
However, coordination between the embassy and members of other ministries and sectors such as trade counselors and defense counselors is sometimes loose due to the "two-headed management" mechanism.
Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the role of "commander-in-chief" of the ambassador for all officials assigned from other ministries and sectors, to ensure that the operation of specialized departments is unified with general coordination, avoiding the situation of "the drum beats in the right direction, the trumpet blows in the wrong direction".
