National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân makes a speech at the meeting with voters in Cần Thơ City. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân yesterday said she highly appreciated voters’ opinions on the issues of Cần Thơ City and of the Mekong Delta region.

She was speaking at a meeting with voters in Cần Thơ City yesterday.

Nguyễn Thanh Xuân, vice head of the Cần Thơ Deputies Delegation, made a brief summary of the outcomes of the 10th session of the 14th National Assembly.

Dương Văn Bé, a voter from Cái Răng District’s Lê Bình Ward, voiced his concern about salt intrusion and riverbank erosion in the Mekong Delta, as well as sand and forest exploitation, which all cause serious damage to the State and people.

Bé also said due to the change of use purposes, ​​agricultural land area has been increasingly narrowed. He said he hoped the State would continue investing in infrastructure in the Mekong Delta to improve people's lives.

NA Chairwoman Ngân said that the National Assembly paid serious attention to these issues.

In the 10th session, the National Assembly passed the amended Law on Environmental Protection. The prevention of natural disasters would be increasingly effective when it came into effect, she said.

Ngân said the transportation system in the Mekong Delta had been invested in but the region has soft ground, so the cost of road construction was higher than that of the southeast and areas with harder ground.

Over the years, the State has invested in 40km of the HCM City - Trung Lương Expressway. By the end of 2020, the Trung Lương – Mỹ Thuận Expressway is scheduled to open to traffic. The Mỹ Thuận 2 Bridge project, which connects the two highways of Trung Lương – Mỹ Thuận and Mỹ Thuận – Cần Thơ, will create a complete traffic network connecting HCM City to Cần Thơ.

These projects had been included in the next five-year medium-term public investment plan, she said.

On the collection of electricity bills through bank accounts, NA Chairwoman Ngân said the collection of bills via bank accounts was a policy.

However, not everyone had a bank account, so the city’s Department of Industry and Trade needed to have a roadmap to implement it. The collection of electricity bills should be carried out in a traditional form, especially for the elderly who did not have a bank account, she said.

At the meeting, Ngân said Việt Nam had completed its responsibilities as the Chair of ASEAN and the Chair of the 41st Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (AIPA 41) amid the complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In terms of the socio-economic situation, Ngân said that currently, eight out of 12 socio-economic targets had been met.

She stressed that agriculture, farmers and rural areas played a very important role for Viet Nam as they involve national livelihoods and socio-economic development.

Amid the pandemic, the agricultural sector contributed to the national economy, and food security through agricultural exports, she said. — VNS