On the morning of August 4, continuing the program of the First Extraordinary Session, General Phan Van Giang, Member of the Politburo, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defense, authorized by the Prime Minister, presented a report on the draft Law on Prevention and Combat of Mass Destructive Weapons.
Prevention and combat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is an urgent requirement
General Phan Van Giang said that the study, development and promulgation of the law is an urgent requirement to institutionalize the Party's guidelines and policies on protecting the Fatherland from an early stage, from afar, from when the country was not yet in danger.
The draft law consists of 4 chapters and 37 articles. The basic content of the draft law is built on the basis of institutionalizing 3 policies that have been approved by the Government, inheriting the relevant regulations of current law, and overcoming inadequacies in the work of preventing and combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
At the same time, supplement new regulations to meet the requirements of implementing international treaties, resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and relevant international norms.
The content of the draft law is also reviewed and designed to ensure consistency and synchronization with laws on national defense, security, counter-terrorism, anti-money laundering, chemicals, nuclear energy, foreign trade management, customs, science and technology as well as other relevant specialized legal fields.
The draft law is built in the direction of a framework law, only stipulating fundamental and long-term stable issues under the authority of the National Assembly; not legalizing in-depth technical and professional contents that frequently fluctuate, but assigning the Government and competent agencies to specify details to ensure flexibility, feasibility, and conformity with practice and relevant international commitments.
The draft law clearly stipulates the mechanism to protect the legitimate rights and interests of agencies, organizations, and individuals in the process of applying measures to prevent and combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
General Phan Van Giang said that the draft law orients to simplify procedures in the direction of integrating the provision, exploitation, and sharing of information with existing databases and information systems of ministries, branches, and localities. Strengthen the use of electronic methods, apply priority mechanisms, and simplify inspection and supervision methods for organizations and businesses with good internal compliance programs.
According to General Phan Van Giang, the draft law has been reviewed and revised in terms of both content, legislative technique and consistency of the legal system. Ensuring strict and feasible regulations, without generating new administrative procedures and compliance costs for individuals, organizations, and businesses.
At the same time, meeting the requirements of State management and fully fulfilling Vietnam's international obligations in preventing and combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
General Phan Van Giang emphasized that the implementation of the law does not require large financial resources, but is basically organized on the basis of inheriting organizational structure, human resources, facilities, information systems, and databases.
Proposal to concretize national risk assessment criteria
Appraising the draft Law, Senior Lieutenant General Le Tan Toi - Member of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the National Defense, Security and Foreign Affairs Committee said that the Committee agreed with the necessity and purpose of building the Law; basically agreed with the scope of amendments and supplements of the draft Law.
Regarding the national risk assessment criteria for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the Control List, the Committee basically agreed with the draft Law.
To be strict and feasible, the Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for National Defense, Security and Foreign Affairs proposed that the Government study to supplement and improve in the direction of more concretizing assessment criteria, supplementing quantitative indicators or appropriate assessment levels; clarifying the role of enterprises and economic entities in the group of vulnerability criteria; clearly stipulating principles, methods, information sources and responsibilities of agencies in the process of assessing and updating national risk assessment criteria.
The thẩm tra agency also proposed to clarify the mechanism for integrating, referencing and applying the Control List to specialized lists; at the same time, supplement regulations on information security and handling mechanisms in emergencies.
