All the participants agreed that the existing law failed to reflect the character of co-operative businesses, and had not defined the key differences between co-operatives and other forms of businesses, and the benefits enjoyed by co-operative members.

Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc suggested that changes to the law should enable co-operatives to operate and develop in a more effective, independent and sustainable manner.

"The law must protect the rights and obligations, as well as the benefits of co-operative members in their capacity as owners of their co-operative," said Phuc.

Phung Quoc Hien, chairman of the Committee for Finance and Budget, conceded that it was very difficult to develop a law, as there were a diverse range of co-operatives currently operating in the country.

He said the new law should address three key factors, such as capital ownership and the form of capital contribution, production organisation and production management.

"These three factors are the foundation for co-operatives to develop," said Hien.

In his opinion, capital contributions could be in the form of cash or productive means or land. Yet there should be certain limits to the contributions in order to stop the transformation of co-operatives into joint stock companies.

During their discussion, the participants had different opinions on whether co-operatives should be able to establish companies.

Tran Dinh Dan, National Assembly Office director, expressed his concerns about the ownership structures of co-operatives.

"In a co-operative, members simultaneously hold two roles at the same time: owners and clients," said Dan.

Le Thi Thu Ba, chairwoman of the Committee on Judiciary, said if the law regulated that co-operatives were an economic entity with a distinct legal status, it retained the right to buy shares and contribute capital just like other economic entities in order to generate profits for its members.

However, National Assembly vice chairman Uong Chu Luu said if the law allowed co-operatives to establish an affiliated company, contribute capital and to buy shares in other businesses, it meant that the nature of the co-operative would have changed from the original objective of co-operative, i.e. for all co-operative members to have the same equal access to the co-operative's assets.

Ha Van Hien, chairman of the Economics Committee, said if the co-operative was considered as an autonomous economic organisation possessing the same legal rights as other economic entities, why should co-operatives be denied of the right to establish affiliated companies or to buy shares from other enterprises.

"In reality, quite a few enterprises are already affiliates of co-operatives," said Hien.

At present there are 14,500 co-operatives in Viet Nam, of which 600 were established before 1997. Most of which are based in the Hong (Red River) Delta.

The existing co-operative law was approved by the National Assembly in 2003.

It is expected that the revised law would be approved by the National Assembly in 2011.

In the afternoon, the NA Standing committee discussed the Government's proposals about the law on archiving national materials.

This law was put into effect in 2001 but many regulations under it were still unclear and hard to put into practice, said Minister of Home Affairs Tran Van Tuan. Those include the regulations on the administrative system of organisations that are in charge of archiving historical material, registration to archive and protect material, and the length of allowed time for people to use or borrow particular pieces.

There are two archiving systems at present; the Archive Department under the office of the Party Central Committee which archives materials of the Party, and a State Archive Department which archives materials of the State.

"These two departments work independently and efficiently. The Government proposes that we keep them as they are," Tuan said.

Legal Committee Chairman Nguyen Van Thuan said however, that national materials are precious and have a critical meaning to the task of the country's construction and protection so they all need to be archived in one place which is the State Archive Department.

"National materials are being archived unsystematically. Besides the two above departments, there are still many other archive offices under different sectors including police, military, and foreign affairs," he said.

NA vice-chairman Nguyen Duc Kien suggested that they keep the system as it is but have just one office in charge of the archiving activities. "This organisation can be supervised by both departments," he added.

Huynh Ngoc Son, another NA vice-chairman said if the two current archive departments are merged, then there should be one office in charge of archiving materials as Kien suggested. "If the two departments still work independently then establishing another office under them is a waste of money," Kien said.

At the meeting, committee members also recommend specific regulations on examination criteria. — VNS