Attending the meeting included GCRA Chairman GCRA Vũ Hoài Bắc, and GCRA Vice Chairwoman Trần Thị Minh Nga and GCRA Vice Chairman Nguyễn Tiến Trọng, members of the drafting team and representatives of relevant agencies and units.

Deputy Minister Nguyễn Hải Trung said the Law on Belief and Religion was passed by the 16th National Assembly at its first session. It will take effect on January 1, 2027. Under the Law, the Government is tasked with detailing many important provisions and issuing measures to organize and guide its implementation. It will help bring the Law’s provisions into practice soon and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state administration on belief and religion.

Deputy Minister of MERA Nguyễn Hải Trung speaks at the meeting

The Deputy Minister stressed that, under the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 959/QD-TTg, the Ministry of Ethnic and Religious Affairs is in charge of drafting the decree. It must submit the draft decree to the Government in October 2026.

Delegates at the meeting

He also noted that the new regulations must be feasible and closely reflect reality. They must also meet the need to step up administrative reform and expand the use of information technology and digital transformation in the state administration on belief and religion.

As reported at the event, the draft Decree has eight chapters and 74 articles. It details the provisions that the National Assembly assigned to the Government under the Law on Belief and Religion, and sets out measures to organize and guide the Law’s implementation. The draft retains many still-relevant provisions of current legal documents. It also amends and supplements many others to meet practical needs and the requirement to reform state administration on belief and religion.

GCRA Chairman Vũ Hoài Bắc speaks at the event

During the event, delegates gave feedback on the draft’s scope and structure, and on the retained, amended and supplemented provisions. They also discussed new regulations on belief and religious activities in cyberspace, decentralization delegation of authority, and administrative reform in the field of belief and religion.

Concluding the event, Deputy Minister Nguyễn Hải Trung respectfully acknowledged and highly appreciated the substantive presentations and the dedicated, thoughtful contributions made by the delegates. 

He also assigned the drating team to urgently complete the draft decree before submitting to the Government. He urged special attention to decentralization, delegation of authority, administrative reform, and the use of information technology and digital transformation in the state management of belief and religion, in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management and meet practical needs in the new period.