The Vietnam Lawyers’ Association (VLA) has thus far set up 54 legal consultation centres nationwide as part of a project on legal education and assistance for the public, as heard during a conference reviewing the partial project outcomes from 2013 – 2016 held in Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu on August 6.

As many as 3,200 consultants worked within the centres, recording 163,000 disputes among locals successfully mitigated during the 2009 - 2014. About 116,000 individuals, including impoverished residents, received legal assistance during the period.

According to VLA Vice President Le Minh Tam, the project has contributed to raising awareness among different agencies on the role of providing local access to legal knowledge and assistance.

Capacity building programmes for VLA members to carry out the initiative have also been prioritised, said Tam.

However, weak coordination and management have led to slow project implementation in some localities, the improvement of which should be a focus moving forwards.

On the occasion, the VLA organised a training course for heads of its chapters across the southern region.-VNA
VNA