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Vietnam's General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Vo Van Thuong at the National Assembly’s session this morning |
National Assembly deputy Ha Anh Phuong from the Northern Province of Phu Tho said that the salaries of teachers and school staff are currently still low, and many teachers even cannot make ends meet; as a result, many people had to quit their teaching career, or change jobs or do part-time work.
In addition, the allowances of teachers and school staff are also quite low, and some teaching staff even do not receive any allowances. Thus, deputy Ha Anh Phuong said that low salaries and allowances erode teachers’ enthusiasm for their teaching profession.
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| Chairman of the HCMC People's Committee Phan Van Mai at the NA's session |
Therefore, deputy Ha Anh Phuong proposed that the National Assembly and the Government, in this salary reform, need to set teachers' salaries at the highest level in the salary scale system of public non-business units and have additional allowances based on their quality of work and the regions where they work. At the same time, there must be a solution to increase salaries and allowances for school staff so that they can feel secure in their work; thereby, they will be more dedicated to their profession, and meet the requirements of teaching and learning in the current period.
Meanwhile, in talking about regulations in the field of health, deputy Nguyen Tri Thuc in HCMC paid attention to the regulations for pre-marital health examination which is important to help find diseases, especially genetic diseases. However, there is currently no mandatory premarital health examination before marriage.
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Deputy Nguyen Tri Thuc |
Deputy Nguyen Tri Thuc cited a real story that doctors in a hospital were very heartbroken in choosing to save the mother or save the child, just because the parents of the child had not conducted a pre-marital health check or screen for diseases. The deputy suggested that there should be regulations requiring mandatory pre-marital health examinations before marriage registration and have policies to support women in disadvantaged remote areas and poor people.
In addition, because people suffering from cancer have increased but the number of radiotherapy machines only meets 60 percent of patients’ demand and Vietnam has no proton radiotherapy machine, which helps minimize damage to surrounding healthy tissue, deputy Nguyen Tri Thuc, therefore, proposed that the Government should invest in two proton radiotherapy treatment centers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to improve the quality of people's health care.
Delegate Nguyen Tri Thuc also suggested the National Assembly and the Government pay attention to the disbursement acceleration of capital resources under the socio-economic recovery and development program after the Covid-19 pandemic in the medical sector.
Despite his consent with the assessment that Vietnam's economy has improved in the last months of the year, deputy Tran Anh Tuan from HCMC said that Vietnam's economy will be under pressure from multiple complex problems including low aggregate demand, pressure on exchange rates, inflation, high-interest rates in the coming time. Moreover, credit to the economy is difficult to achieve as planned and the recovery ability of the economy is still slow.
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Deputies at the NA's session |
NA deputies also discussed the tax reduction policy. According to representative Tran Anh Tuan, businesses are still confused about the imposition of tax as they don’t know whether their products, goods and services are eligible for tax reduction or not. To stimulate the economy, deputies proposed to have a value-added tax (VAT) exemption policy, imposing a tax rate of 8 percent on all items instead of some items as currently.
Furthermore, deputy Thach Phuoc Binh from Tra Vinh Province proposed urgently refunding VAT to clear backlogged capital sources, creating liquidity for businesses to implement credit policies consistent with the production and needs of each industry.
Deputy also suggested urgent implementation of effective solutions to stimulate demand by directly supporting consumers to increase purchasing power, reduce prices of consumer goods, reduce interest rates, and reduce personal income taxes and corporate income tax while increasing consumer loans. Additionally, extension of time to pay debts, increasing social security support, and simplifying subsidy procedures for the poor are also hoped to stimulate demand.
Last but not least, deputy Tran Anh Tuan requested the Government and ministries to create favorable conditions and improve the business investment environment to support entrepreneurs as well as attract capital and resources for the development of the agricultural industry in addition to removing problems in markets, prices, and materials for farmers. Ministries and responsible agencies need to work together to remove difficulties in applying for permission to build works for cultivation, animal husbandry and works for agricultural development.
