Members of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee discussed amendments to the 2004 Bankruptcy Law on September 13.

They agreed that in the nine years since it was enacted, the law had provided a valuable legal foundation for poorly-performing enterprises, co-operatives and co-operative alliances to declare bankruptcy.

However, they also pointed out that some of the regulations in the law were not specific enough, which made it difficult for the courts to settle bankruptcy petitions lodged by enterprises or co-operatives.

Under the existing law, some State-owned enterprises that performed poorly and sought to declare bankruptcy could not do so. The law also failed to encourage these enterprises to restructure and bring their production back to normal levels.

Members of the committee agreed that the proposal made by the Supreme People's Court to revise the 2004 Bankruptcy Law aims to bring the law more in line with international practice and improve the health of Vietnam's economy.

"The current law does not offer equivalent benefits to employers and employees when enterprises declare bankruptcy," said Ksor Phuoc who is also Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs.

Several members said that the revised law should also apply to individuals, households or a group of people – in short, anyone with a business licence. However, Nguyen Van Hien, Chairman of the National Law Committee, objected, "If we include these subjects under the jurisdiction of the law, I'm afraid we won't be able to implement it because we don't have enough staff."

As a result, the Standing Committee agreed to limit the law to enterprises, co-operatives and alliances. Other cases would be covered under the Civil Code and Economic Law.

Also on September 13, the NA Standing Committee members discussed revisions to the 1992 Constitution with focuses on five key issues, including economic components, land ownership, land reclamation, the model of local authorities and the need for a Constitutional Council.-VNA