Instruction on the Formulation, Improvement, and Dissemination of Legislation within the Responsibilities of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

Article

Lao People's Democratic Republic
Peace, Independence, Democracy, Unity, Prosperity

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry No. /MAF
Vientiane Capital, July 9, 2024

Guideline
On the Creation, Improvement, and Dissemination of Legislation under the Responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

- Pursuant to the Law on the Making of Legislation (Amended) No. 06/NA, dated November 16, 2021;
- Pursuant to the Decree of the Prime Minister on the Organization and Operation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry No. 603/PM, dated October 15, 2021;
- Pursuant to the Letter of the Ministry Office No. 225/MO, dated July 2, 2024.

In the past, the Office, various departments, institutes, and second-level technical units under the Ministry
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has actively studied and implemented the Party's line and state policies, transforming them into specific legislation concerning work under its responsibility, resulting in over 100 pieces of legislation with general binding force that have been registered in the official gazette, serving as important references for managing the sector in line with the gradual construction of a rule-of-law state. However, it is also observed that the drafting, amendment, and dissemination of legislation under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry have not yet achieved uniformity and clarity in accordance with the principles, procedures, and techniques of legislation, particularly in determining the structure.
and the content is also insufficient, causing the issuance of some legislation to not meet the set deadlines, and some legislation is not consistent with the actual situation of the country.

In order to ensure that the creation, amendment, and dissemination of legislation under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry are correct in principle, procedure, and in accordance with the law, while also ensuring uniformity in structure and content,

The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry issues this guideline:

[]. Objectives, meanings, and importance
1. Objectives
- To ensure that the creation, amendment, and dissemination of legislation under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry are in accordance with the principles and procedures stipulated in the law and legislative drafting techniques;
To guide, explain the steps and methods of drafting, amending and disseminating legislation, including the publication of law books and subordinate legislation under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in a detailed, clear and concise manner;

- To serve as a reference for offices, departments, institutes and second-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to achieve uniformity in the drafting, amendment and dissemination of legislation, including the publication of legislation under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry;

- To ensure that the content of adopted and promulgated legislation is correct in principle, of quality, concise, easy to understand, consistent and can be effectively implemented.

2. Meaning and importance
The creation, improvement, and dissemination of legislation under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is a process of drafting various legislation, including the dissemination and evaluation of the implementation of legislation that the law assigns to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and that has general effect, from the stages of preparation, data collection, drafting, to consideration and approval, promulgation, publication in the official gazette, dissemination, and evaluation of the implementation of legislation concerning agriculture, forestry, and rural development, which is important for enhancing the efficiency of managing the agriculture and forestry sector by law, contributing to the strengthening of agriculture, forestry, and rural development work.
11. Formulation and Improvement of Legislation under the Responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
The formulation and improvement of legislation under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry includes:

- Legislation that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry researches, drafts, and submits to higher levels for consideration, approval, and promulgation, such as laws, decrees of the President, decrees of the Government, orders and decisions of the Prime Minister;

- Legislation that the Office, departments, institutes, and second-level technical units research, draft, and submit to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for consideration (through the Office), such as decisions, orders, and instructions of the Minister.

1. Formulation and Improvement of Laws
The steps and stages of formulating or improving laws under the responsibility of the Ministry
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Committee Responsible for Drafting and Amending Laws) must pay attention to implementation with high responsibility, including proactively monitoring and participating in the implementation of the following 9 important steps:
1.1. Proposal of the plan for drafting and amending laws
The Office. All departments, institutes, and second-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that intend to draft or amend laws must proactively coordinate with the Ministry Office (Legal Department) to study and develop the plan for drafting and amending such laws, along with the policy for law-making and the policy impact assessment report, before submitting to the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry through the Ministry Office for consideration, and then to the Ministry of Justice before September 1 of the fourth year of the term.
Each National Assembly and the Government shall consider and submit the plan for drafting and amending laws to the National Assembly Standing Committee within January of the following year.
1.2. Appointment of the Committee Responsible for Drafting and Amending Laws

After the five-year plan for drafting and amending laws has been approved and the National Assembly Standing Committee has determined the annual plan, the departments, institutes, and second-level academic units that proposed the drafting and amending of such laws must proactively coordinate with the Ministry's Office (Legal Department) to study and propose the appointment of a committee responsible for drafting and amending such laws, which consists of a Steering Committee and a Secretariat as follows:

1) Steering Committee

> The Minister or Deputy Minister (who supervises the department, institute, or second-level academic unit) serves as the Chairperson of the committee;
- Deputy head of department, institute or second-level technical unit (responsible for such work) as deputy;

- Head, deputy head of office (supervising legislative work) as deputy;

- Representative at departmental level of the Law Committee and other relevant committees of the National Assembly as member;

> Representative of the Legislative Department, Office of the Prime Minister as member;

- Representative of the Legal Department, Ministry of Justice as member;

- Representative of other relevant technical departments, institutes or ministries as member.

2) Secretariat

- Head or deputy head of department, institute or second-level technical unit (responsible for such work) as head;

- Head of division responsible for such work of the department, institute or second-level technical unit as deputy;
Director or Deputy Director of the department concerned with the creation and improvement of legislation of the division, institute or second-level technical unit as members;
- Director or Deputy Director of the Legislation Department, Ministry Office as members;
- Experts of the Law Committee and other relevant committees of the National Assembly as members;
> Experts of the Legislation Department, Office of the Prime Minister as members;
- Experts of the Law Department, Ministry of Justice as members;
- A number of experts related to such work as members.

For the rights and duties of the committee responsible for creating and improving laws, basically as follows:
- Develop plans and budgets for the committee's activities to submit to the agency responsible for drafting the law for consideration and decision;
Collect, research and investigate information, summarize policies and other issues related to the content of the draft law;
- Determine the structure, write the content of the draft law and write the explanatory memorandum of the draft law;
- Organize consultation meetings and publish the draft law on websites or other print media to solicit comments on the draft law;
- Submit the draft law to relevant sectors and other stakeholders for comments;
- Solicit comments from experts, both domestic and foreign, with knowledge and experience related to the content of the draft law;
- Compile and consider comments from individuals, legal entities and organizations on the draft law;
- Regularly report on the activities and progress of drafting the law to the agency responsible for drafting its law;
- Exercise other rights and perform other duties as assigned.
1.3. Determining the structure and content of the draft law
The committee responsible for drafting and amending laws, in coordination with the Department of Law of the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Legislation of the Office of the Prime Minister, the Law Committee and relevant committees of the National Assembly, shall research and determine the preliminary structure and content, and then proceed to write the content of the draft law.

Clear, easy to understand, and implementable. In case of using technical terms, there must be an explanation of the terms in that draft law.
After completing the preliminary content of the draft law, the responsible committee must submit the draft
Law submitted to the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry for consideration and guidance, through the Council of Ministers, while also studying and revising the draft law according to the opinions of the Council of Ministers before seeking comments.
1.4. Seeking comments on the draft law
After obtaining approval from the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, the committee responsible for drafting or amending the law must submit the draft law together with specific questions to seek comments from relevant sectors, organizations, and other parties at central and local levels, to provide opinions on issues related to their responsibilities, and coordinate with the legal affairs coordinator of the Ministry's Office (Legal Department) to obtain the entire content of the draft law, including the explanatory memorandum.
The law shall be published on the official gazette website or the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for at least sixty days to allow the people and all sectors to provide comments on the content of the draft law. In each consultation, the committee responsible for drafting the law must record the important issues that have been researched and discussed in each meeting, including policy issues, principles, wording, timelines, and other important issues, to serve as a reference for researching and improving the draft law to make its content clearer, more precise, concise, and more complete than before. 1.5. Review of consistency of the draft law by the Ministry of Justice After completing the consultation process and revising the draft law according to the consultation comments, the committee
The entity responsible for drafting the law must prepare the draft law together with the explanatory memorandum, the policy on law-making, and the policy impact assessment report, and submit them to the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry through the Ministry's office for consideration and onward submission to the Ministry of Justice at least one hundred and twenty days before the opening day of the National Assembly session, for checking consistency and legislative drafting technique. In case any issues remain unclear, the Ministry of Justice shall provide written comments to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for reconsideration, and the committee responsible for drafting the law must study and respond on behalf of the Ministry and return the said draft law to the Ministry of Justice within fifteen days from the date of receipt of the comments.
In case it is found that the draft law is substantially complete, the Ministry of Justice will coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (the committee responsible for drafting or revising the draft law) and relevant parties to revise and edit, with participation of representatives from the Law Committee and other relevant committees of the National Assembly, the Office of the Prime Minister, and relevant parties to ensure uniformity before submitting the said draft law to the Office of the Prime Minister for inclusion in the agenda of the government meeting.
1.6. Consideration of the draft law at the government meeting
The Minister or Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry presents the draft law to the meeting
The government, in order to consider, especially unresolved issues, new policies and principles, to seek guidance from the government meeting, which will clearly define the guidance on the draft law in the resolution of the government meeting.
After the draft law has been considered in the government meeting,

The minister will coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (the committee responsible for drafting or revising the draft law), the Ministry of Justice, the Law Committee and relevant committees of the National Assembly, and other relevant parties to study and revise according to the comments of government members, then submit to the Prime Minister for consideration and present to the National Assembly Standing Committee for comprehensive review of content at least sixty days before the opening day of the National Assembly session.
1.7. Consideration of Draft Laws at the National Assembly Session
The National Assembly Standing Committee shall assign the Law Committee and other relevant committees of the National Assembly, in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (the committee responsible for drafting or revising the draft law), to conduct a comprehensive review of the content, and then submit it to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration, which may decide to organize an expanded seminar for National Assembly members to provide comments, or decide to submit the draft law for public consultation for the common benefit of the people, before presenting it to the National Assembly session.
The National Assembly may consider the draft law in one or two sessions, unless the draft law is not approved by the National Assembly session, or the draft law is submitted for comments.
Initially, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (the committee responsible for drafting or amending the draft law) must revise the said law according to the opinions of the National Assembly session in order to submit it to the National Assembly session at the next agenda.
For the consideration and adoption of the draft law, the National Assembly session shall proceed by secret or open ballot, with more than half of the votes of the National Assembly members present at the session considered as adopted by the National Assembly session.
After the National Assembly session has adopted the draft law, the committee responsible for drafting or amending the draft law must proactively coordinate with the Law Committee and other relevant committees of
The National Assembly researches and revises the draft law according to the opinions of its members before submitting it to the Standing Committee
The National Assembly considers and submits it to the President within twenty days from the date the National Assembly session approved the draft law.
1.8. Promulgation of laws by the President
The President shall consider and issue a decree promulgating the law within at most ten days from the date of receiving the law from the National Assembly. During that period, the President has the right to request the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to reconsider; if the National Assembly confirms the original version, the President shall promulgate it within fifteen days from the date of receiving the confirmation letter from the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.
The committee responsible for drafting or amending a law must follow up to have that law published in the Official Gazette and posted on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
1.9. Publication of the law in the Official Gazette and on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
After the President has considered and issued a decree promulgating the law, the committee responsible for drafting or amending the law must proactively coordinate with the National Assembly and the Ministry's Office, which is the Department of Legislation as the focal point, to submit the original legislation for publication in the Official Gazette within five working days from the date of promulgation, to give it legal effect, and also post it on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for broad and comprehensive public awareness.
2. Formulation and Amendment of Presidential Decrees
A Presidential Decree is a legal instrument subordinate to law, which sets forth principles, regulations, and measures aimed at adjusting social relations or amending certain articles of law, and is issued by the President upon the proposal of the National Assembly Standing Committee.

The formulation and amendment of Presidential Decrees follow a process similar to that of laws, involving a plan for formulation or amendment with justifications, to be included in the annual government meeting agenda, and a responsible committee appointed by the Minister to coordinate relevant parties, directly implement, and proceed according to the steps prescribed in the Law on the Making of Legislation.
Namely: drafting decrees, formulating policies and assessing the impact of such policies, including consistency review by the Ministry of Justice and consideration by the Government meeting before submitting to the National Assembly Standing Committee for research, deliberation and approval, and presenting the draft decree to the President for consideration in accordance with the law.
3. Formulation and amendment of Government decrees

All departments, institutes and secondary-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that intend to formulate or amend a Government decree must submit a plan for formulating or amending the Government decree to the Minister (through the Ministry Office) before August 20 of each year for consideration, before submitting to the Office of the Prime Minister before September 1 of each year, clearly specifying the reasons,
Necessity and timeline for drafting or amending the said decree.

The detailed steps for drafting and amending a decree, the consistency check by the Ministry of Justice, and the consideration of the draft decree by the government are similar to the steps for drafting and amending laws, including drafting the decree, seeking comments, consistency check by the Ministry of Justice, and consideration of the draft decree by the government. Details shall follow the manual on drafting official documents and legislation under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, as periodically issued.

4. Drafting of agreements and orders of the Prime Minister

Departments, institutes, and second-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that have the function
To draft an agreement or order of the Prime Minister, it must coordinate with the Ministry Office (Legal Department) to study the structure and content before submitting to the Minister for submission to the Prime Minister through the Office of the Prime Minister for consideration in accordance with the law.

For the structure of the draft agreement or order of the Prime Minister, it shall follow the manual on the creation of official documents and legislation under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, as promulgated from time to time.

The drafting of a Prime Minister's agreement must include an impact assessment of the draft agreement and publish the said draft on websites, print media, or use other methods to allow the public to provide comments for at least sixty days, as per
Stipulated in Article 75 of the Law on Making Legislation (Amended), No. 06/NA, dated November 16, 2021.

5. Formulation of Agreements, Orders, and Instructions of the Minister

Offices, departments, institutes, and second-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that intend to formulate agreements, orders, and instructions of the Minister must coordinate with the Ministry Office (Legislation Division) to study the structure and content for submission to the Minister for consideration.

The formulation of an agreement must include an impact assessment of the draft agreement as stipulated in Article 77 of the Law on Making Legislation (Amended), No. 06/NA, dated November 16, 2021, and
Participation of departments, units or other relevant parties, and posting the draft agreement on websites, publications or using other means so that the public can provide comments at least sixty days before the Minister considers it.

For the drafting of Ministerial orders and instructions, there must be participation of departments, units or other relevant parties, then submit to the Minister for consideration.
Details of drafting Ministerial agreements, orders and instructions shall follow the manual on drafting official documents and legislation under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, as promulgated periodically.
11. Dissemination of legislation and evaluation of implementation of legislation
1. Dissemination of legislation
1.1. Dissemination on the Official Gazette website and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry website
After laws, regulations, government decrees, decisions and orders of the Prime Minister, including decisions, orders and guidelines of the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry have been approved or promulgated, the Office, departments, institutes and second-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry responsible for drafting and amending legislation must proactively coordinate with the Ministry Office (Legislation Division) to submit the original legislation to the Official Gazette within five days from the date of approval and promulgation, for public awareness and implementation.
Along with the publication of generally binding legislation in the Official Gazette, the Ministry Office (Legislation Department) must proactively coordinate with the departments, institutes, and second-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to publish such legislation on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (URL: //1#1#ພ/.ກາລໄົຕ01.12) for widespread public awareness and joint implementation to achieve good results.
1.2 Printing and dissemination of legislation
Offices, departments, institutes, and second-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that intend to print law books and sub-legislative books within their respective areas of responsibility must submit to the Ministry Office (Legislation Department) to coordinate with the Department of Law Dissemination,
The Ministry of Justice issues publication permits based on the determination of format, size, color, content, and procedures for requesting permission to publish law and sub-legislative books as stipulated in the Agreement on the Management of Publishing Law and Sub-legislative Books No. 518/ກຍ, dated April 25, 2019, in order to carry out publication and distribution to its line ministries, central organizations, provinces, and agriculture and forestry departments that are its technical vertical lines at the local level, as stipulated in the Decree on the Dissemination of Legislation No. 562/ລບ, dated November 6, 2020. Alongside the publication of law and sub-legislative books, the office, various departments, institutes, and...
The second-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry responsible for drafting or amending the said legislation have five
[functions]: education, dissemination through various forms and methods, including dissemination in different ethnic languages
in order to ensure the effective implementation of the said legislation, by collecting data on the content and
forms of dissemination, dissemination venues, number of participants, and other relevant information to serve as a basis for reporting to higher levels and monitoring, evaluating the implementation of the said legislation.
2. Evaluation of the implementation of legislation
Offices, departments, institutes, and second-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
have duties and responsibilities in monitoring, inspecting, and evaluating the implementation of legislation under their purview.
Its direct responsibility, through various forms such as organizing specific topic discussions or seminars, inspecting the implementation of tasks of relevant organizations. In case it is found that such legislation contradicts the Constitution, laws, and other legislation, or is inconsistent with the socio-economic situation, or violates treaties to which the Lao PDR is a party, it must submit to the ministry for consideration in order to amend, suspend, or repeal that legislation as stipulated by law. Before the creation and amendment of laws, decrees, orders, Prime Minister's orders and Minister's orders, offices, departments, institutions, and second-level technical units under the ministry
Agriculture and forestry must conduct an evaluation of the implementation of the said legislation or work in the past, in coordination with the Ministry's Office (Legislation Department), develop a plan and carry out an evaluation of the implementation in the past to serve as important information for research, formulation, and improvement of legislation on agriculture, forestry, and rural development to align with the actual situation of the country and be effective, while ensuring integration with the region and internationally.

1. Measures and implementation methods

1. Let the Ministry's Office be the center in coordinating with various departments, institutes, second-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and other relevant parties to organize dissemination, integration,
Guide, monitor, and inspect the implementation of this directive to achieve good results;

2. All departments, institutes, and second-level technical units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry have the duty to thoroughly understand and proactively implement this directive strictly;

3. In actual implementation, if there are any conveniences or difficulties, report to the Office and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry according to procedures for timely consideration and resolution.

This directive takes effect from the date of signing and has been officially registered.

This directive replaces Directive No. 03 17/MAF dated February 24, 2015, on the plan for drafting and amending laws and subordinate legislation in the agriculture and forestry sector.