As to the receipt, explanation, and revision of the draft law, Chairman Vu Hong Thanh of the Economic Committee stated that regarding the name of the draft law, the Standing Committee of the Economic Committee proposed retaining the name "Law on Urban and Rural Planning" as suggested by the Government.
The process of revising the draft law has incorporated numerous opinions to improve the clarity of provisions related to the content, subjects, and scope of urban and rural planning.
The definitions of "urban area" and "rural area" have been adjusted to accurately reflect the conceptual connotations and the development levels of administrative units or their sub-region.
According to the Chairman of the Economic Committee, regarding general rural planning, in response to the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the draft law has been revised to eliminate the requirement for all communes to develop separate general rural plans of their own.
Instead, the content of general rural planning of these communes will be incorporated into the district-level one (as stipulated in Clause d, Paragraph 2, Article 27 of the draft law).
However, in the case that a commune has special characteristics in terms of population size, area, socio-economic development requirements, culture, nature, landscape, and natural conditions, the provincial People's Committee may determine that the commune must also develop its own general rural plan as part of the general district planning task (as stipulated in Clauses 6, 27, and 28).
Additionally, district-level people's committees can proactively adjust this to meet practical requirements.
Furthermore, the draft law has also been adjusted regarding planning for new urban areas. Accordingly, the draft law has been revised to eliminate the requirement for provinces oriented to become centrally-governed cities to develop extra general plans for this to-be level in addition to provincial plans.
The draft law also supplements provisions for cases where a district is oriented to become a city or town. In such cases, instead of developing a general district plan, a general plan for the new urban area will be developed for the entire district or for a suitable area and scale that meets the standards of the planned urban administrative unit.
