The 13th National Assembly on June 3 held a live television debate on the draft amendments to the 1992 Constitution during its ongoing fifth session in Hanoi.

Regarding Article 1, a majority of NA deputies suggested keeping the country’s name unchanged as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which has been in place since July 1976 and enshrined in the 1980 and 1992 Constitutions. This is to continuously affirm the goal and path of building and developing the socialist-oriented country.

Touching upon regulations defined in Article 54 on economic sectors, deputies agreed that the definition of the nature of the economy plays a crucial role and is a decisive factor to the orientation of socialist state development in Vietnam.

They said that the socialist-oriented economy aims to ensure every member of society enjoys economic benefits in a more equal and better manner. The socialist-oriented economy will create a premise to overcome consequences and shortcomings that result from a market-based economy as well as other negative impacts during the process of market economy development and international integration.

Part of the debate was on the selection of local administrative models. Many opinions showed that grassroots administrative models need to renew to meet the country’s socio-economic development.

A recent report by the National Assembly Standing Committee shows that individuals and organisations both at home and abroad have contributed over 26 million comments on the draft amendments to the 1992 Constitution since the poll was launched four months ago.

The draft revisions to the 1992 Constitution were first made public on January 2 for public feedback in line with Resolution 38/2012/QH13 adopted by the National Assembly on November 23, 2012.-VNA