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Vietnam PM to address opening of assembly session
HANOI (AFP) - - Vietnam's national assembly opened Tuesday for a month-long session in which legislators in the communist country were set to discuss economic challenges, including double-digit inflation.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was due to address the legislature in a televised speech about the country's economy, which has taken a beating due to galloping inflation driven by food and fuel prices.
The 493-member assembly, in which over 90 percent of deputies are Communist Party members, was expected to formally lower Vietnam's 2008 economic growth target to 7.0 percent, down from last year's 8.5 percent.
Assembly members were also set to pass 13 laws, including bills paving the way for Vietnam to start building its first nuclear power plant by 2015 in southern Ninh Thuan province, to meet chronic national electricity shortages.
The third session of the 12th National Assembly, which was expected to sit until June 8, was also scheduled to pass a law allowing foreigners to buy and own property in Vietnam, state media said.
Also on the legislative agenda was a proposal to increase the size of the capital city Hanoi by swallowing up parts of neighbouring provinces, in a bid to streamline urban growth and city planning.
Legislators were sitting in a Hanoi defence ministry building as the former Ba Dinh Hall has been demolished to make way for a new assembly hall.
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