It is necessary to promptly complete and effectively organize the implementation of legal policies on protecting consumer rights.

In addition to the achieved results, the implementation of Directive No. 30-CT/TW of the Party Central Committee Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership and the State's management responsibility for consumer rights protection still reveals certain shortcomings and limitations, requiring timely improvement of legal policies on consumer rights protection. This is also the content of the discussion between Deputy Minister of Justice Nguyen Thanh Tinh and reporters of Vietnam Law Newspaper.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Tinh said that the current context raises the urgent issue of perfecting legal policies on consumer rights protection (CPR) to implement the Party's policies, including Resolution No. 66-NQ/TW on innovation in law-making and enforcement to meet the requirements of national development in the new era; Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW on private economic development and recently Resolution No. 72-NQ/TW on a number of breakthrough solutions to strengthen the protection, care and improvement of people's health; at the same time, protecting constitutional rights such as property rights, inviolability of life and health, contributing to raising legal awareness and the spirit of respect for the law, building a socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam.

* Could you please share specifically about the need to perfect institutions and legal policies on consumer protection?

First of all , after 5 years of implementing Directive No. 30-CT/TW, in addition to remarkable results, the implementation of the Directive has revealed a number of limitations and difficulties. For example, some current legal regulations are not suitable for reality, requiring amendments and supplements in accordance with innovative thinking on law-making; a number of consumers and enterprises have not yet proactively learned and voluntarily complied with the law on consumer protection; coordination between ministries, branches, localities and socio -political organizations in consumer protection is sometimes still not synchronous and not really tight, leading to the effectiveness not reaching the optimal level... has been posing many new and complex challenges for consumer protection work.

Second , the current reality, as reflected by the mass media, is that the situation of counterfeit, fake, and poor quality goods is very painful and complicated, especially in essential products such as medicine, milk, and food, seriously affecting the health of consumers. This problem appears more and more sophisticatedly, infiltrating the market through many channels, posing a great challenge to management and supervision and requiring the drastic and synchronous participation of the political system.

Third , in legal relationships, consumers are always in a weaker position, even "alone" compared to businesses, even when they are fully aware. Businesses, for their own interests and profits, can disregard the law and "bully" consumers through the production and trading of counterfeit, fake, poor quality, and expired goods... Meanwhile, sanctions for violations that affect rights, health, and life... are not strong enough to deter, especially for essential goods and services and those that take advantage of vulnerable consumers.

Fourth , the rapid development of science and technology, especially digital economy and e-commerce, has created new space for development, but the downside is that it creates another channel for consumer fraud if they are not equipped with enough knowledge. When problems arise or they want to reflect and make recommendations on the quality of goods traded via e-commerce, consumers still face many difficulties and challenges.

Fifth , through preliminary monitoring by the Ministry of Justice, the responsibilities of ministries and branches in this work are still unclear. Currently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is responsible for the overall work of protecting and managing consumers, but in addition, there are responsibilities of other specialized ministries such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment , Health, etc. In particular, the implementation of the 2-level local government model requires reviewing and clearly defining the authority and responsibilities of the People's Committees at the commune level in organizing the implementation of regulations on protecting and managing consumers. At the same time, it stipulates conditions to ensure the effective implementation of state management work on protecting and managing consumers at the grassroots level.

Therefore, it is necessary for Vietnam Law Newspaper to build the column "Improving legal policies on protection of people's rights" to properly implement the policy of our Party and State, which is to take people as the center and the subject of service.

* So, according to the Deputy Minister, what is the orientation of this Column?

- I appreciate the fact that Vietnam Law Newspaper has opened the Column "Improving legal policies on consumer protection". In order for the Column to be attractive and attract readers' attention, in my opinion, the articles in the Column need to interview and record the opinions of representatives of relevant ministries, branches, localities, experts, scientists and consumers themselves... on consumer protection work; clarify the current state of laws and organization of law enforcement on consumer protection..., thereby proposing solutions for improvement. In particular, the Column needs to closely follow the implementation of consumer protection responsibilities of competent agencies, fully reflect developments in consumers' lives to propose timely policy responses.

For example, the Column can organize a series of articles reflecting on the production and trading of counterfeit and poor-quality goods in a number of "hot" fields today, from food, pharmaceuticals, veterinary drugs, pesticides to products directly related to the health of children and the elderly, which have caused direct and indirect harm to consumers, to legitimate businesses and the economy, as well as to the nation. At the same time, analyze and clarify the causes of this problem such as the limitations and inadequacies of legal regulations; ineffective state management; the lack of responsibility in complying with the law by the subjects of production and trading of goods and services; the problem of access to information and understanding of consumers, etc.

The column can also reflect the current status of inspection, examination, and handling of administrative violations in consumer protection to assess whether the impact of handling administrative violations in this work is appropriate and has enough deterrence. In addition, there is also a need for articles analyzing the responsibility of enterprises in consumer protection; on the development of science, technology, innovation, digital transformation in the direction of creating conditions for enterprises to develop but must protect the interests of consumers...

I hope that the fact that Vietnam Law Newspaper organizes many in-depth articles on the topic of consumer protection and management will bring many positive effects in raising awareness of consumers, producers and traders of goods and services, and the implementation of responsibilities of State agencies in perfecting and organizing the implementation of laws on consumer protection and management as required by the Secretariat in Directive No. 30-CT/TW.

* Thank you very much, Deputy Minister!

Hong Thuy - Hoang Thu - Nhat Hong (performed)

Source: https://sotuphap.camau.gov.vn/thoi-su-chinh-tri-va-tin-tuc/can-kip-thoi-hoan-thien-to-chuc-thuc-hien-hieu-qua-chinh-sach-phap-luat-ve-bao-ve-quyen-loi-nguo-288632