The Law on Real Estate Business, which was approved with 79.72 per cent of deputies’ vote, regulates real estate business activities and the rights and obligations of institutions and individuals who engage in real estate business and transactions.

The draft law had earlier been published in the mass media for voters’ response before the legislators decided its fate.

During the final debating sessions on the law, most deputies agreed with the legislation’s content and heard a report on the public response to the draft law presented by Nguyen Duc Kien, Chairman of the NA Economic and Budget Committee.

NA Chairman Nguyen Van An said that, before being approved, the law was adjusted according to NA deputies’ opinions and suggestions, and many clauses were redrafted in more detail.

Some of the clauses were debated at yesterday’s session.

Clause 6 regulates the types of real estate eligible for trading, including all kinds of housing, construction works, land-use rights and other kinds of real estate, while Clause 8 stipulates conditions for institutions and individuals who engage in real estate business activity.

According to Clause 8, such organisations and individuals have to set up businesses or co-operatives and register legal capital and have a business registration as per regulations.

Organisations and individuals who want to continue doing business in real estate brokerage need appropriate certification.

The law also outlines regulations on areas of activity for real estate business organisations and individuals, including foreigners and overseas Vietnamese. Additional regulations relate to real estate trading and transfers via different modes of payment, principles of buying and renting houses and construction works, real estate brokerage activities, and the operation of real estate trading floors. The law consists of six chapters and 81 clauses and comes into effect on January 1, 2007.

Cinema Law

The Cinema Law was adopted with more than 81 per cent of the vote. The final draft was delivered by Tran Thi Tam Dan, Head of the Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children .

Article 5 of the law affirms State policy to develop the cinema industry by investing in building an advanced cinematography sector with a national identity, modernising the industry, improving films’ quality and widening the scale of film production and distribution, thus meeting the increasing spiritual demands of the people while contributing to socio-economic development and broadening cultural exchanges with other countries.

Under the law, Viet Nam Television’s general director as well as provincial broadcasting and TV stations’ directors will have the right to decide on investing in and producing films for their stations in line with law. This new provision shows that the Ministry of Culture and Information has decentralised its licence-granting powers to localities.

Article 30 states that film distribution establishments and other enterprises licensed to export and import films must have their own theatres for showing films. Film producers are allowed to export and import films, but they are not allowed to import more than twice the number they produce.

Joint-ventures and co-operation between domestic and foreign individuals and organisation must be licensed by the Ministry of Culture and Information.

Article 34 states that the State will provide funds for projector equipment and transport as well as operational funds for all mobile teams set up by people’s committees of provinces, districts and provincial towns to bring films to remote areas.

The State will refund all the costs of mobile teams showing films in mountainous and remote areas, on off-shore islands, in ethnic minority regions and to the armed forces, and between 50 per cent and 80 per cent of the costs if they show films in rural areas.

The law has eight chapters and 55 articles. It will come into effect on January 1, 2007.

Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control.

Nearly 80 per cent of NA deputies yesterday approved the Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control with 50 clauses, after some articles had been revised and supplemented.

After garnering ideas from NA deputies, Article 2 of Clause 4 was revised to regulate the obligations of people living with HIV. These included implementing measures to prevent HIV infection to others, informing a positive HIV test result to a wife or husband or people they are engaged to, carrying out regulations on treatment with anti-retroviral drugs, and implementing other obligations following the law and other relevant regulations.

Deputies had earlier deemed Article 3 unsuitable because, if enterprises could not employ people in the final stages of AIDS, it should clearly regulate the boundaries for people with HIV to work in enterprises. However, the NA decided to keep the article intact to encourage enterprises to receive people with HIV. It is impossible to clearly define the boundaries for people with HIV to work at enterprises, while this may also increase discrimination against and stigmatise infected people.

Following earlier suggestions, the law added Article 4, which prohibits parents or guardians of HIV-positive children under 18 from abandoning their charges.

The idea to include people with HIV/AIDS in remote and special needy areas into a group of prioritised people with access to information, education and dissemination about HIV/AIDS prevention and control, was approved and included in Clause 11, Article 2.

As for HIV/AIDS control and prevention in the family addressed in Clause 13, Article 3 was revised as follows: "The family of people with HIV will be responsible to feed, take care of and encourage people with HIV to live with the family, community and society; and co-ordinate with bodies, organisations and the community on HIV/AIDS prevention and control."

As to the participation of people with HIV in HIV/AIDS prevention and control, a deputy proposed an addition to Article 2 that the State earmark an amount to support for the activities of peer educator groups. However, the idea was not incorporated into the article because peer educator groups operate solely with voluntary support from people with HIV.

Contributions to groups’ activities’ expenses come from group members or are funded by programmes, projects of other voluntary social organisations. A regulation that required the State to earmark funding for such group activities was not suitable to the principles of establishing and operating such groups. Apart from peer educator groups for people with HIV, there are many other units and voluntary groups operating in other social fields that do not use funds from the State budget.

According to Clause 40, people participating in health insurance schemes and living with HIV/AIDS will have their health check-ups and treatment covered by the health insurance fund.

Social Insurance Law

The NA did not pass the Social Insurance Law yesterday as scheduled, because less than half of the deputies have not yet agreed with the regulation on management expenditure in Clause 95.

Many deputies voiced concern about the issue, forcing the NA Standing Committee to conduct a poll. The poll indicated that only 151 out of 373 opinions agreed to fix maximum management expenditure at 2.4 per cent out of total real revenue from compulsory social insurance contributed by employees and employers every year.

As many as 40 per cent requested a reduction in the rate, while 38 per cent agreed to let the Government regulate a concrete rate after consulting the NA Standing Committee.

In light of the above result, the NA authorised the Government to study and readjust the regulation before it comes into effect.

Vietnam News