Anti-corruption and economic development: Going hand in hand, not hindering each other

Preventing and combating corruption and negativity must serve socio-economic development. Promoting the prevention and combat of corruption and negativity must not affect or hinder socio-economic development.

That is the request that Comrade To Lam, General Secretary, President, Head of the Central Steering Committee on anti-corruption and negativity, set forth at the 26th meeting of the Steering Committee on August 14.

Fighting corruption and negativity in parallel with socio-economic development has been a reality in Vietnam throughout 40 years of renovation, especially since the 13th Party Congress (early 2021) up to now.

From the beginning of the 13th Congress term to August 2024, 141 officials under the Central Committee's management were disciplined, including 31 members and former members of the Central Committee (including 2 deputy prime ministers and former deputy prime ministers, 3 ministers and former ministers, 7 secretaries and former secretaries of provincial and municipal party committees).

55 officials under the Central Committee's management (16 members and former members of the Central Committee) have been criminally prosecuted; 32 officials under the Central Committee's management have been considered for dismissal, leave of absence, resignation, dismissal, or reassignment to other jobs, including 7 Politburo members, 1 Secretariat member, and 10 Central Committee members.

In the first 6 months of 2024, Party committees and inspection committees at all levels disciplined 308 Party organizations and 11,005 Party members. The Central Executive Committee, Politburo, Secretariat, and Central Inspection Committee disciplined 47 officials under the Central Committee's management.

Authorities have initiated new prosecutions and investigated 2,836 cases with 5,975 defendants for corruption, economic crimes, and position-related crimes, including 475 cases with 1,094 defendants for corruption crimes.

The drastic fight against corruption and negativity has not had a negative impact on the country's socio-economic development. This is proven by statistics.

In 2021-2023, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and armed conflicts seriously affecting all areas of global life, Vietnam's economy still has positive points compared to many economies in the world. In 2021, our country's GDP achieved a growth rate of 2.58%.

In 2022, Vietnam's economy has had a positive recovery, with GDP increasing by 8.02% (the highest level in the past 10 years). In 2023, GDP in 2023 reached an increase of 5.05%. GDP in the first 6 months of 2024 reached 6.42% over the same period last year.

Total import-export turnover reached 368.53 billion USD, up 15.7% over the same period last year, of which export turnover reached 190.1 billion USD, up 14.5%...

Our Party and State persistently fight against corruption and negativity because these are factors that hinder socio-economic development.

According to our Party's viewpoint, corruption, negativity and degradation in political ideology, morality and lifestyle are closely related; the fundamental and direct cause of corruption is degradation in political ideology, morality and lifestyle.

In the book "Resolutely and persistently fighting against corruption and negativity, contributing to building our Party and State increasingly clean and strong" by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, it is clearly stated: "Preventing and fighting negativity, focusing on preventing and fighting the degradation of political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle among cadres, party members, civil servants, and public employees, that is, eliminating the root cause of corruption".

Corruption causes a loss of many resources to individuals and interest groups that should have been used for socio-economic development and for the common good; distorts the market and deforms institutions, economic policies, legal principles, distorts the government's spending structure, and weakens the effectiveness of welfare programs...

What is more dangerous and immeasurable is that corruption and negativity undermine people's trust in the policies and guidelines of the Party and State, weakening the close bond between the people and the regime.

In the past and even today, there are still people who seek to justify corruption, considering it a form of "lubricant" to make the public apparatus operate more smoothly, the economic and financial mechanism become more "flexible", businesses "breathe easier" and ultimately the country's economy will develop more.

There are also concerns about the “reverse effect” of resolutely fighting corruption and negativity. That is, “eliminating the motivation” of dynamism and creativity, causing cadres, party members and civil servants to develop a mentality of hesitation and fear of making mistakes when performing their duties, so they seek to delay and avoid, leading to the result of “slowing down” the country’s development.

At the National Conference summarizing 10 years of anti-corruption and anti-negativity work in the 2012-2022 period organized by the Politburo on June 30, 2022, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at that time severely criticized the idea of ​​"backtracking", fearing that the fight against corruption would "hinder" economic development.

The good work of Party building and rectification, and the promotion of the fight against corruption and negativity have contributed significantly to promoting socio-economic development, maintaining political stability, and strengthening national defense, security, and foreign affairs.

In particular, this contributes to regaining and strengthening people's trust, refuting all false arguments of bad, hostile, and opposing forces that the fight against corruption and handling of erring cadres and party members is "internal strife" or "factions."

Strengthening the fight against corruption only frustrates those with impure motives, those who have already been involved in corruption, and those who do not fully understand the Party's policies and guidelines, lack courage, knowledge and experience.

At the recent 26th meeting of the Central Steering Committee on preventing and combating corruption and negativity, General Secretary and President To Lam requested that Party committees, Party organizations, and functional agencies absolutely must not be subjective or satisfied with the results achieved, but must continue to strongly and synchronously deploy solutions; resolutely and persistently fight against corruption and negativity according to the motto "non-stop, without rest, no forbidden areas, no exceptions, no matter who the person is; prosecute one case, alert the whole region, the whole field".

And an accompanying proposition that General Secretary and President To Lam emphasized is that the fight against corruption and negativity must meet the requirements of serving socio-economic development well, accelerating the achievement of the goals set by the 13th National Party Congress.