Hanoi (VNA) – The question-and-answer session at the 14th National Assembly’s sixth plenumconcluded on November 1 with 135 questions raised for 19 cabinet members.

On the last day of thesession, the deputies focused on matters related to climate change response, forestryland, illegal exploitation of rivers’ sand and soil, cashless payment, baddebts, the treatment of ash released from thermal power plants, waste in thelack of reusable school materials, and social insurance, among others.

Responding toquestions regarding the environmental risks of using ash from thermal powerplants as construction materials, Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha saidthat the Ministry of Science and Technology issued a decision on environmentalstandards for the materials on September 28 this year.

The ministry andrelevant agencies have also released 15 criteria and specific technicalguidelines to speed up the treatment of ash for use as construction materials,he said.

Minister of Scienceand Technology Chu Ngoc Anh added that his ministry has also researchedmeasures to ensure the material will meet the criteria in Vietnam and verified thestandards given by other ministries.

Regarding debts insocial insurance for dissolved and bankrupt companies, Minister of Labour,Invalids, and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung said that the ministry is advisingthe Government in drafting a decree to deal with the problem.

Over the abuse of supportpolicies for revolutionary contributors, he said that authorised agencies havestarted legal proceedings against 49 cases involving 171 suspects, of whom 45were sent to prison.

Answering questions oncashless payments, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Le Minh Hung said thatin order to encourage cashless payments, the bank has issued 10 circulars directingthe development of payment applications, along with a set of criteria for ATMand QR code payment methods.

Hung said that thebank has also removed regulations on the ceiling interest rate on deposits inVND under a 6-month term. He added that the bank will submit to the Governmentmeasures to restructure banks with poor performance.

Responding to the deputies’question on waste in school materials and especially textbooks, Minister ofEducation Phung Xuan Nha acknowledged the shortcomings, including the managementof textbook designs, which led to students writing directly in the books andmaking it impossible for them to be reused by the next year’s students.

He said that theministry has applied a number of measures to minimise the waste, including holdingtraining courses for students and teachers on using the textbook in aneffective manner.

Appearing at the NA toclarify a number of issues of the Government’s responsibilities, Prime MinisterNguyen Xuan Phuc said that in order to preserve and promote achievementsreached over the past three years, it is necessary to complete thesocialist-oriented market economy institution, in line with judicial reform andanti-corruption.

He said that in thefuture, the Government will work to control inflation, as well as ensuremacro-economic stability, financial safety, monetary and food security, andalso traditional and non-traditional security.

The Government willdrastically restructure the economy, focusing on dealing with problems in theprivate economic development, and enhancing productivity and nationalcompetitiveness.

Concluding thequestion-and-answer session, NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan summarised thatthe session took place in a democratic, straightforward, and responsiblemanner.

She spoke highly of thedeputies’ questions and the short but clear answers of Cabinet members.

However, she alsopointed to a number of unconvincing answers that failed to meet the requirementsof deputies.

The NA leader askedthe Government, the Chief Judge of the Supreme People’s Court, and heads of theSupreme People’s Procuracy, ministries and sectors to effectively implementtasks set in NA resolutions on specific supervision and question-and-answersessions. –VNA