Legislators basically agree on draft Law on Civil Defense

At the event, a representative of the N.A. Standing Committee reported that the draft law supplemented the operational principle of the civil defense. Accordingly, the operation of the civil defense must ensure the humanity, justice, transparency, and gender equality.

Regarding the level of the civil defense, the draft law also defines four criteria to be based on, including the local authorities and civil defense force's capability in responding to and overcoming consequences of incidents. This criterion is set according to each locality's socio-economic condition, helping promote the pro-activeness and responsibility of local authorities in incident and disaster response.

According to the N.A. Standing Committee, local authorities' announcement of civil defense levels in their managed areas does not overlap with current regulations on announcing risks related to natural disaster, diseases and others.

On behalf of the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) – the agency tasked with drafting the draft Law on Civil Defense, Defense Minister General Phan Van Giang thanked N.A. deputies for their responsible opinions and emphasized that the MND would continue cooperating with N.A. authorized agencies to complete it to ensure its feasibility and highest requirements on civil defense.

At the event, the defense chief underlined the need to build a civil defense fund. He took the military's COVID-19 response experiences as vivid examples. He affirmed that without reserve forces and readiness in personnel and equipment in different scenarios, the military could not succeed in disease prevention and timely reinforcement to COVID-19 hotbeds in Ho Chi Minh City and other Southern localities.

General Phan Van Giang also elaborated on the civil defense fund that it will be managed by the Ministry of Finance so that the Prime Minister could decide to use it when needed and allocate the fund to the right force.

Regarding the civil defense levels, the defense minister stressed the necessity to have specific criteria for levels of authorities to base on to make early preparation.

N.A. deputies basically agreed on the adjustments of the draft law which has institutionalized the Politburo's Resolution 22 and reached consensus on Plan 1 of the civil defense fund that it is an off-budget state financial fund, established at the central and provincial levels to mobilize resources in society to support civil defense operations.

In his concluding speech, Deputy N.A. Chairman Tran Quang Phuong highly praised related agencies for their close and effective coordination in completing the draft law.

Opinions on the draft law will be collected to help complete the draft law to be submitted to the N.A. for approval in this session.

Translated by Mai Huong