First female deputy to submit law to National Assembly

Hanoi (VNA) – Tran Thi Quoc Khanh, a National Assembly deputy, spoke to the Nong thon Ngay nay (Countryside Today) newspaper about challenges she faced as the first woman to submit a draft law to the NA.

* Will you please share with us your thoughts on when you decided to introduce your initiative on the development of the Law on Public Administration to the National Assembly Standing Committee?

I have nurtured the idea for a number of years. 2013 was the first time I introduced my idea to the NA Standing Committee. Luckily, my idea was acknowledged by the committee. Being an NA deputy, I have always done my best to contribute my opinion during law-compiling sessions. For example: the Law on the Promulgation of Legal Documents, the Law on Grassroots Reconciliation and the Capital Law.

My idea about having a law on public administration was introduced in 2013, and recently it was included in the agenda for lawmaking by the NA Standing Committee. That was a big reward for me.

* Will you please tell us a little bit about how you developed the draft Law on Public Administration?

I started to conduct my research on a Law on Public Administration in 2013 as seeing the absence of such law in Vietnam while public administration is one of issues that people concern most in the country.

A year later, I found myself unable to do the project alone so I told myself I needed to seek support from legal experts, particularly those teaching Administrative Law at Hanoi Law University and the National Academy of Public Administration. They have encouraged me a lot and provided me useful input for my project.

I should say that by now I have already been involved in the lawmaking process for three consecutive legislatures (11th, 12th and 13th National Assembly legislatures). That's why I should say since the moment I had the idea to develop the Law on Public Administration I had already foreseen many challenges. But I told myself "If there is a will, there is way", so I decided to go ahead with my plan.

I see that ministries and agencies are too busy to connect with each other. I myself also have many work to to. However, I've tried to manage to visit different ministries and sectors, and talked with legal experts over there about my intended project. I've tried my best to connect them and work together.

Also I told them that if I was not elected to the 14th National Assembly Legislature, I would continue to work with the future lawmakers in a hope to turn my idea into a reality. If the law is passed by the NA, it would help to relieve the people's and enterprises' anxieties. It would save the Government, the people and enterprises quite a lot of money with more workable public administration.

* Have you received active support from functional agencies in the past few years?

In May 2015, it was the first time the NA passed a resolution assigning the NA Legal Research Institute and the NA Office to support NA deputies to pursue their projects on law compiling. Thanks to that resolution, I and my associates have enjoyed active support from them in our work. As a result, by now we have completed the first draft of the Law on Public Administration with six chapters and 60 Articles.

* Do you worry that your "product" might be turned down by the other NA deputies, as until now, no individual has succeeded in producing a law in Vietnam?

I have firm confidence that the recent resolution adopted by the NA, which has been requested by the NA Legal Research Institute and the NA Office to support the deputies to pursue their legal projects, would be effective leverage for more NA deputies come up with legal projects.

I'm also confident that the Party's documents adopted at the recent 12th Party Congress on the continued renewal of the legislative work and administrative reform would give a boost to the lawmaking process of the NA.

If my draft Law on Public Administration is taken into consideration by the NA, it would be great for me and my associates. We vow to do our best to make the project high-quality.-VNA