National Assembly deputies basically agreed the draft programme on supervision operations in 2012 at the Oct. 31 plenary meeting of the ongoing session of the 13th NA in Hanoi.

The draft programme on supervision operations in 2012 will focus on the implementation of laws and policies on public investment for agriculture, farmers and rural area as this is an important field in the country’s socio-economy.

They proposed adding the operations of State-owned enterprises, corporations and economic groups as well as the implementation of traffic safety regulations to the prioritised items in the supervision programme.

The deputies also agreed that the NA supervision operation in 2011 made positive influences on many aspects of socio-economic life and contributed to raising the efficiency of the making of laws and decisions on important issues of the country.

Also on Oct. 31, the NA heard the government’s report on the implementation of the project to plant five million ha of forests from 1998 to 2010, which obtained significant achievements.

In the period, the country planted more than 4.67 million ha of forests, bringing the country’s forest coverage to 39.5 percent in 2010 from 32 percent in 1998.

The cases of violation of forest laws and the areas of damaged forests decreased remarkably. However, the acreage of barren land was still large (over 2.8 million ha), the violation of forest protection regulations remained rampant and complicated and the quality and biodiversity of natural forest continued to decline.

The government said therefore it is necessary to build and implement a plan to protect and develop forests in the 2011-2020 period with a view to increasing forest coverage to 43 percent by 2015 and 45 percent by 2020.

In verifying the report, the NA Committee on Science, Technology and Environment praised the achievements of the project and pointed out outstanding shortcomings in planning and management work regarding forest land and forests.

The committee asked the government to devise comprehensive solution for forest fire and illegal exploitation of forests./.