Chairs of National Assembly (NA) meetings should be equipped with a gavel so that they can pound it on the table as a signal to stop lengthy speeches delivered by attendants. NA deputy chairman Huynh Ngoc Son made the suggestion at yesterday’s meeting held by the NA’s Standing Committee to review the 4th session of the 13th NA that ended on November 23. “I want to mention some issues I think must be corrected in next sessions of the NA. One of them is that many officials delivered very lengthy reports to the NA. Some reports scheduled to be delivered in 15 minutes actually took 45 minutes”.

“Some ministers simply said: ‘I would like to deliver a brief report...,” but in fact, their reports were not brief at all. In future meetings, such lengthy speeches should be cut to save time,” Son said. During the recent Q&A sessions of the NA, the NA chairman had to cut lengthy answers by some ministers, Son added. “It is advisable that we apply a new practice that the chair of a NA meeting will bang a gavel against the surface of his or her desk at the meeting to cut short verbose speeches delivered by attendants” Son said. Another deputy chairperson of the NA, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, agreed to Son’s proposal, saying such a gavel should be used in next sessions of the NA. Ngan also suggested that the legislative body create its own television channel to use in disseminating information. It is scheduled that the 5th session of the NA will kick off on May 20, 2013, during which deputies will carry out a vote of confidence on officials holding positions elected or approved by the NA or People’s Councils.