The Presidential Office announced 3 laws freshly adopted at the 14^th National Assembly’s 2^nd session last month at a press conference in Ha Noi on December 12.

These are the Law on Belief and Religion, the Law on Property Auctions and the Law on Amending and Supplementing the Investment Law’s Article 6 and Appendix 4 on the list of conditional business lines.

With 68 articles in 9 chapters, the Law on Belief and Religion stipulates that everyone has the right to freedom of belief and religion and to follow or not to follow any religion. Under the spirit of the 2013 Constitution, it clearly affirms that the right to freedom of belief and religion is a human right rather than a civil right, as it was described on the Ordinance on Belief and Religion before.

The Law will come into effect on January 1, 2018.

Consisting of 8 chapters with 81 articles, the Law on Property Auctions stipulates principles, processes and procedures for property auctions; the rights and obligations of auctioneers and auction organisers; the settlement of violations and procedures for the annulment of auction results and State management of property auctions.

The law will come into force on July 1, 2017. However, Clause 4 of Article 80 of this law, which allows auction organisers to collect auction service fees in accordance with existing legal regulations, will take effect on January 1, 2017.

The Law on Amending and Supplementing the Investment Law’s Article 6 and Appendix 4 on the list of conditional business lines merges businesses and occupations that have the same objectives and features while adding 15 businesses and fields that meet the new requirements of the State’s management of investment and business activities.

The law will become effective on January 1, 2017, except for regulations on the trade of disguised devices and software to record images and sound, as well as those on the production, assembly and import of automobiles, which will come into effect on July 1, 2017.

(Source: Nhan Dan Online)