The President's Office, at a press conference yesterday, promulgated new laws and a resolution that were approved during the seventh session of the 13th National Assembly in late June.

These are the revised laws on Health Insurance and Vietnamese Nationality, apart from the laws on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners in Viet Nam, Construction, Marriage and Family and the Notary.

The other laws that were passed were the laws on Bankruptcy, Public Investment and Customs, along with the laws on Environmental Protection, and amendments and supplements to the Law on Inland Waterway Traffic.

Interestingly, the Law on Vietnamese Nationality no longer sets a time-limit for the registration of Vietnamese nationals as promulgated in the 2008 version.

The law is also designed to allow overseas Vietnamese, who have not yet lost their nationality, as prescribed by law before the effective promulgation of this law, to retain their Vietnamese nationality.

Vietnamese residing abroad, who have not yet lost their nationality, but have no papers to prove it, as prescribed in Article 11 of this law, should make a registration with overseas Vietnamese representative missions to have their Vietnamese nationality recognised and their passports issued, it said.

Meanwhile, the Law on Marriage and Family, consisting of nine chapters and 133 articles, removes the regulation forbidding same sex marriages. However, Item 2 of Article 8 mentions that the State does not recognise same sex marriages.

At the press conference, the President's Office also made public a resolution on the country joining the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and the Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on matters specific to aircraft equipment.

(Source:VNS)