On the afternoon of June 17, during the discussion session in groups on the draft Law on Notarization (amended), President To Lam devoted his entire speech to talking about administrative procedure reforms related to notarization. There were periods when notarization was very arbitrary. The President said that in the past, we did not have notarization because all transactions were very simple. After development, from the need for State administrative management and judicial development, notarization was born. From the simple act of copying originals, certifying documents, the initial authority of the People's Committee, then society developed, forming the profession of notarization, assigned to the judiciary but largely socialized. According to the President, this law must first serve people in need, serve the administrative management, social governance and be related to law, judicial evidence, the accuracy must be very high. Therefore, it is necessary to promulgate a law for standard notarization activities.

President To Lam. Photo: Hoang Ha

However, he expressed concern that "reading and rereading, seeing that it is not correct, still arbitrary, is very difficult". The State requires this and that to be notarized, to be authenticated for people to do things. The President noted that administrative agencies have very arbitrary periods, everything must be confirmed, notarized to resolve, just forcing people to notarize without knowing why. "Reforming administrative procedures is to reduce these, naturally notarization has decreased significantly. For example, in the past, we had to go to the household registration office to photocopy the household registration, go to the notary office to verify the household registration, but now there is no paper household registration anymore, so what can we notarize?", the President said and emphasized that recently, State management and administration have been reformed a lot. Holding an ID card will not need notarization . President To Lam pointed out the reality that in the past, when applying for a passport or registering a motorbike, we had to hold a set of documents and have them notarized. Currently, through administrative procedure reform, there is no need for many documents anymore, so the heat of the notary industry has decreased. "Now the citizen identification card is the only document that determines the legal status of the transacting person. When holding the identification card, there is no need for any confirmation. Just an identification number in the electronic environment is enough to make a transaction, without notarization," the President emphasized. People can go for a health check, confirm taxes, and health insurance by integrating documents into the identification number and can legally identify themselves, have full rights to transact in society, and directly conduct electronic transactions very accurately, without the need for confirmation or notarization. "Therefore, notarization has been greatly reduced, this is also administrative procedure reform," the President affirmed. From these analyses, he suggested that the bill should clearly stipulate in which cases notarization is required, not that an agency or official sets out procedures forcing people to notarize, but when asked what notarization is for, they do not know. The President also informed that recently people have been very sympathetic to the reform of administrative procedures, "to the point that they do not think why it is so simple now". "In the past, to do procedures, you had to queue, arrive at several hours in the morning, bring all the necessary documents to be processed; but now you only need to bring your citizen ID card to be considered and processed, and you do not even need to come and transact electronically", the President compared. He noted that in general, we must consider how notarization is, what it serves, what it does in administrative management and the judicial system, and at the same time "require serving the people - that is the highest requirement". "It is necessary to review more comprehensively so that the law can enter into life and receive a wider response. State management agencies must also get involved, regulate what is notarization and what notarization must be standard, to reform administration", said the President.
Many delegates commented on Article 8 of the draft Law on Notarization (amended) on the criteria for appointing notaries as "Vietnamese citizens under 70 years old". Delegate Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh (Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Justice) said that this provision contradicts Article 14 of the draft Law when one of the cases where a notary is dismissed is "over 70 years old" without requesting to be dismissed, or no longer meeting other standards as prescribed by law. "So, a 69-year-old person, after being appointed, should he be dismissed immediately?", Ms. Hanh raised and suggested reviewing this provision. Also concerned about cases of those who have just been appointed at the age of 70 and will be dismissed, delegate Nguyen Viet Thang (Kien Giang) suggested that the age for practicing as a notary should be regulated as "not exceeding 70" and the age requirement for appointment should be regulated for a more reasonable period: There may be at least 24 months or 36 months left until the age for practicing as a notary expires, to ensure reasonableness and feasibility when implementing.

Vietnamnet.vn

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