HANOI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Under the draft amended Law on National Defense adopted by Vietnam's top legislature on Friday, the country's Defense Ministry will develop economic-defense areas and supervise the operation of businesses that serve national defense and military units that have been given defense and economic tasks.

Strategies, planning schemes, master plans and projects of ministries, agencies and localities must be assessed by the Defense Ministry in line with the Law on Planning, the Investment Law and other relevant regulations, Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday.

The amended Law on National Defense also asks agencies, organizations and individuals to combine socioeconomic development and national defense while conducting production, business and investment activities.

The Defense Ministry is restructuring and rearranging businesses, with the number of enterprises dropping from 88 to 18.