Hanoi (VNA) - The draft Law on SpecialAdministrative, Economic Units needed to be substantially revised to make itfeasible and to fully exploit resources for boosting economic development,according to a verification report from the National Assembly (NA) Law Committee.

Committee chairman Nguyen Khac Dinh presented the report at the NA’s sitting onNovember 10, saying the Government needed to clarify several points.

Specifically, an evaluation of policies applied to different models of economiczones around the world was needed as a base for raising outstandingpreferential incentives for Van Don, Phu Quoc and Bac Van Phong.

It was necessary to evaluate the competitiveness of these units and theirability to attract investments in comparison with special economic zones in theregion and in the world, Dinh said.

Financial support from the State budget in initial years, the participation ofstrategic investors as well as the ability to raise capital for special administrative-economiczones to ease pressure on the State budget also needed to be given carefulevaluation.

In addition, special attention must be attached to ensuring national security,preservation of natural resources and biodiversity, social security and livingstandards of local residents.

“The specific regulations for these three units need to be further reviewed andstudied carefully to bring into full play their potentials and strengths whilepreventing competition which might cause a waste of resources,” the reportsaid.

“It is necessary to clarify sectors of priority in attractinginvestments appropriate to each units,” Dinh said, adding that the three zonesshould not compete with each other, but compete regionally and globally.

The law committee also urged the Government to add regulations about criteriafor strategic investors to select appropriate investors, was critical to thesuccess of special administrative-economic units.

Careful consideration must be given to land and natural resource policies, Dinhsaid. The current draft law aimed to create favourable conditions for landaccess for investors, allowing ownership up to 99 years for investment projectsin priority sectors.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, in charge of compiling thedraft law, said that the Government proposed two options for the organisationof local governments at special administrative-economic units for comments fromthe NA.

The first option was that there would be a head of the specialadministrative-economic unit with no people’s councils and committees. The headwould be appointed by the Prime Minister.

The second option was that the special administrative-economic units wouldstill have people’s councils and committees.

Dung said both options had strengths and limits, but the first was preferredbecause it would create breakthroughs in administrative management with acompact structure and enhanced accountability. However, this could cause abuseof power if not tightly supervised.

According to Dinh, the supervision mechanism on the head of the specialadministrative-economic must be clarified to prevent this.

For any models of local government organisation, Dịnh said that it was vital toclarify the relationship between local government and provincial people’scouncils and committees and other provincial and central-level agencies.

The committee urged the Government to speed up the compilation of the law asthere were still a huge load of works to be completed to propose the law at theNA’s fifth meeting.

Currently, the projects of three special administrative-economic units had beenprepared by the provinces and had not been approved by the Government.

The NA will discuss the law on November 22.-VNA