Capital Law revision to address Hanoi's most pressing needs: Experts

The amendment of the Capital Law should take into consideration Hanoi’s most pressing needs to ensure its leading role as the growth driver for the Hanoi metropolitan areas and of the country overall.

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son at the conference. Photo: The Hanoi Times

The view was shared among National Assembly deputies and experts at a conference discussing proposals for the revised Capital Law held today [February 28].

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son expected a balance among priorities for Hanoi’s development, including politics, culture, education, and science, rather than a purely economic center.

“The amended Capital Law should be the most comprehensive and with unique mechanisms that help Hanoi address its most pressing needs,” Son said.

For the field of training and education, Son said the policy of attracting a high-quality workforce should be incorporated into the overall education policy.

“The significant part for Hanoi is not to attract, but to keep hold of talents, and later put them into good use,” Son noted.

Son also mentioned the fragmented locations of universities in Hanoi that should be relocated for greater convenience in transportation.

“Hanoi should prioritize land resources for the construction of private and international schools in the city,” Son suggested.

Chairman of the Consulting Board of Medlatec Group Nguyen Anh Tri.

On the development of Hanoi’s healthcare system, Chairman of the Consulting Board of Medlatec Group Nguyen Anh Tri stressed the four principles of better access, better focus, higher expertise of healthcare staff, and promoting telehealth.

According to Tri, priority for healthcare development should not be only the focus on building large-scale hospitals or having a high number of hospital beds per person, but to have healthcare facilities near the people.

“The issue is especially important during the pandemic,” Tri said, adding there should be community clinics so that locals would only need 10-15 minutes to get treated, along with the average waiting time for treatment below 30 minutes.

“The development of both public and private clinics, in this case, would help resolve the overload issues at hospitals,” he continued.

Tri also mentioned the necessity for better focusing on quality healthcare centers in a city of over 10 million people, or greater investment into specialized treatments.

Vice Minister of Internal Affairs Tran Anh Tuan expected the upcoming revised Capital Law should be in line with the current trend of greater administrative reforms and streamlining the state apparatus, which could be done via the application of e-government, and later digital government.

“The amended Capital Law should be the basis for Hanoi to create breakthroughs in development,” for which Tuan called for the local authorities to take into consideration the lessons learned from other localities.