On behalf of the government, Minister To Lam told the National Assembly on May 23 that Vietnamese citizens’ residence will soon be managed using electronic data, specifically their identity numbers.
A personal ID number can be used to access and update a citizen’s information on the national demographic database, which is shared between various government agencies.
Commenting on the proposed changes to the residential legislation, Chairman of the parliament’s legal committee Hoang Thanh Tung stated that the committee agreed with the overall content of the government’s report on the need to overhaul the law.
However, the committee asked the government to clarify a number of issues to ensure the feasibility of the new regulations, notably the issuance of ID numbers to nearly 80 million people.
Currently only 18 million citizens have been granted ID numbers while the deadline for the issuance process is scheduled for December 2020.
According to the legal committee, scrapping household registration books will have a tremendous impact on a wide range of procedures and policies, as appropriate measures such as these are needed to avoid disruption and to protect citizens’ legitimate rights and interests.
On May 23, the National Assembly also discussed a draft resolution on special mechanisms for the development of Da Nang and revisions to the law on construction.
