Attending the meeting included Vice Chairmen of the GCRA Bùi Thanh Hà, Dương Ngọc Tấn and Trần Tấn Hùng, and leaders and officers of GCRA’s departments and divisions.

As reported at the meeting, for the first half of the year 2018, the government religious committee has completed 21 out of 29 tasks assigned by the Political Bureau, the Government, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Home Affairs. These assigned tasks include the dissemination of the Decree No. 162 detailing and providing measures for the implementation of the belief and religion law, the drafting of the decree on the sanction of administrative violations of the law, the planning for the implementation of the Political Bureau’s Directive No. 18 on the continuous implementation of Resolution No. 25 on religious affairs, the review of ten years implementing the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 1940 on religion-related housing and land, etc.   

In the context of emerging issues related to religion, such as concerned activities related to the Almighty God Church and several land disputes related to religion, the GCRA has proactively  recommended solutions and measures to competent authorities for respecting the rule of law in the field of belief and religion and ensuring social stability. 

Chairman Vũ Chiến Thắng speaks at the meeting

Speaking at the meeting, Chairman Vũ Chiến Thắng praised GCRA’s all officials and staff for their efforts in fulfilling assigned work. He also pointed out limitations to be overcome in the second half of the year, including the slow grasping of new religious issues in the reality, lack of coordination between functioning departments, inefficiencies in the communication and dissemination of laws on belief and religion, etc.

For the key tasks to be implemented in the last six months 2018, the GCRA leader also highlighted religious external affairs with the Vatican and the central bodies of the state administration on religion in neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia. He also stressed the need for promoting exchanges and research on religious affairs with other countries in the time ahead.

Prior to the meeting, the GCRA has formally announced the appointment of officers the Protestant Affairs Department and the Religious Affairs Professional Training School. Accordingly, Officer Nguyễn Ngọc Bảo from the Protestant Affairs Department was promoted as Deputy Director of the department, and Officer Nguyễn Công Thành was reappointed as head of the office of the professional training school.

Vice Chairman Bùi Thanh Hà presented appointment decisions to promoted officers

PTT