Passed with 488 out of 492 deputies present voting in favor during the first session of the 16th N.A., the amended law introduces sweeping reforms in birth and death registration, decentralization, and digital public administration.
Presenting a verification report before the vote, Minister of Justice Hoang Thanh Tung said the Government had incorporated lawmakers’ feedback, including a nationwide roadmap to implement proactive birth and death registration no later than January 1, 2031.
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A view of the first session of the 16th N.A. on April 23 afternoon |
The reform marks a shift from a citizen-request model to one in which state agencies proactively provide services, requiring synchronized digital infrastructure and stronger data connectivity, particularly in healthcare. During the transition period, localities with sufficient capacity may implement the model earlier, while the State will continue investing in infrastructure, workforce training and policy communication to ensure feasibility and public consensus.
A key highlight of the law is full decentralization of civil registration authority and the expansion of registration regardless of administrative boundaries. According to the Government’s assessment, conditions and resources are now in place for implementation. Initial experience under the two-tier local government model, applied since July 1, 2025, has shown the system operating stably without major obstacles.
At the same sitting, the N.A. also approved the law amending and supplementing several articles of the Notarization Law, with 489 out of 491 deputies voting in favor, reducing the number of transactions subject to mandatory notarization by six.
Tung said based on lawmakers’ feedback, the Government had reviewed and revised the draft law in line with the requirement to renewed legislative mindset, ensuring constitutionality as well as consistency and coherence with related laws.
The revised draft law no longer specifies a fixed list of transactions subject to notarization, instead setting general criteria to determine mandatory cases, narrowing the scope, reducing compliance costs and avoiding overlaps with specialized laws.
It also retains provincial-level authority for notarizing real estate transactions while expanding non-jurisdictional notarization for transactions not directly involving property, making procedures more convenient for citizens and businesses. The Government will also set a roadmap for nationwide notarization of property transactions regardless of administrative boundaries, linked to fully synchronized data systems.
With all 494 presenting deputies voting in favor, the N.A. passed the law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Legal Aid at the session.
The draft law places legal aid beneficiaries at the center, better safeguarding human and citizen rights, particularly for vulnerable groups. It adds low-income workers who are accused persons or victims to the coverage, while retaining the law’s focus on supporting vulnerable groups in civil, criminal and administrative matters rather than extending support to business and commercial disputes.
At the session, with a large majority of N.A. deputies present voting in favor, the N.A. passed the law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Emulation and Commendation; the Law on Belief and Religion (amended); and the Law on Access to Information (amended). Lawmakers also approved a resolution on the coordination mechanism and specific policies to improve the effectiveness of preventing and resolving international investment disputes; and the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Overseas Representative Missions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Source: VNA