The 2nd meeting of the National Legislative Development Project Steering Committee On 27 March 2015, Ministry of Justice in collaboration with Embassy of Canada to Vietnam held the 2nd meeting of the National Legislative Development (NLD) Project Steering Committee. Mr. Dinh Trung Tung, Deputy Justice Minister and Mr. Brian Proskurniak, Program Manager, Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada co-chaired the meetingAccording to Deputy Justice Minister Dinh Trung Tung, the first meeting of the NLD Project Steering Committee held on May 2013 adopted the project document, contents of the Project's master plan and the phase I's work plan of the NLD Project. What is more, the first session focused on renewing the process of the legislative making, and in that meeting, relevant parties agreed that the Project will last for 6 year with the participation of wider partners. Regarding to contents of this meeting, Deputy Minister Dinh Trung Tung especially emphasized on legislative making direction after the National Assembly passed the 2013 Constitution; commenting on the results of Phase I, and discussing and adopting a draft work plan for Phase II of the NLD Project.Given that Vietnam has increasingly integrated into the international economy and will become a member of the ASEAN Economic Community, Mr. Brian Proskurniak emphasized that, in the future, Vietnamese legal system should be more transparent, understandable and accessible to meet specific needs of organizations, individuals and businesses. Besides, the legal system should be consistent with international commitments of Vietnam. Accordingly, the NLD Project will contribute to supporting Vietnam to reach those goals. Mr. Brian Proskurniak also mentioned that the assessment of the Phase I’s results will provide the Project Management Board with strengths and weaknesses of the legislative making process of Vietnam. On those bases, the work plan for the Phase II will be exactly discussed and approved. In addition, Program Manager Brian Proskurniak said that the NLD Project will have more important support for the drafting of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents (Laws) of Vietnam, contributing to significant improvements in legal document building capacity in Vietnam. The NLD Project has been funded by the Canadian Government from May 2013. The objective of the Project is to strengthen the legal foundations for economic growth through an integrated program of reforms to the Vietnamese legislative development process. It addresses several priorities of the Government of Vietnam's legal reform agenda, including: the development of laws that are clear and more easily implemented; improved review of legislation to ensure that it is consistent internally and with other legislation; and more effective public participation in the lawmaking process.The project addresses these concerns through an integrated work program addressing all points of the legislative development process, with attention to legislation that supports economic growth and development. The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) strategic planning and management processes being applied by the Ministry of Justice and line ministries in the legislative development process; (2) increased participation in legislative development by citizens and the private sector; (3) enhanced consistency, coherence and standardization in the Vietnamese legislative development system; and (4) improved quality of economic legislation developed through pilot programs./.