Vietnamese parliament to discuss urgent economic issues at extraordinary session

HANOI, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- The 15th National Assembly (NA) of Vietnam, the country's top legislature, will gather online from Jan. 4 to 11 next year for its first extraordinary session, to discuss "really urgent issues" concerning national development, NA secretary-general Bui Van Cuong said Thursday.

In particular, the legislators are expected to look into fiscal and monetary policies for the implementation of a socio-economic recovery and development program, which is very urgent given difficulties and challenges generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, he told a press briefing here.

He said the legislators will also mull over an investment policy on construction of the North-South expressway for the 2021-2025 period, on special policies and mechanisms for the development of the southern Can Tho city, which is known as the leading growth engine in the country's Mekong Delta region, and on many legislative amendments to facilitate investment and the operation of businesses.

According to him, the legislators will hold the session via video-conferencing due to complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Southeast Asian country.

In its second session in November, the Vietnamese top legislature set the country's economic growth target for 2022 at between 6 and 6.5 percent.