The mark of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in the country's development process

The passing of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong leaves behind boundless sorrow for our entire Party, army and people. He was one of the outstanding leaders of our Party and State.

During more than 13 years as General Secretary of our Party, he firmly followed the Party's policy of innovation and independence and self-reliance, taking the lead with the entire Party to lead the country through many difficulties and challenges, achieving spectacular achievements in all fields.

While working with the Politburo and the Central Executive Committee to promote the building and perfection of the socialist-oriented market economic institution, he clearly saw the risk of degradation in the Party and the State apparatus, directly presiding over the fight against corruption and negativity to clean up the internal affairs and preserve development achievements.

History will judge the achievements and legacy of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. In these sad days, as someone who worked closely with him for a relatively long period of more than 10 years, I would like to point out some of the most profound impressions that I have felt:

As a Party theorist, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has made many efforts to apply Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought to Vietnam's reality.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European socialist system, the theory of building socialism in Vietnam faced many challenges. He directed the Party's theoretical agencies to base on the country's reality and the international situation to perfect the theory of building socialism on the foundation of the Doi Moi process initiated by our Party since 1986. He himself also had important theoretical works on this issue.

Building a socialist market economic institution requires first of all a full market economy. The socialist orientation is to use State resources to ensure that the economy is capable of coping with crisis risks, eliminate the manipulation of "group interests," ensure equal opportunities for economic entities in enjoying policies and accessing national resources, and ensure the best social security for the people with priority given to disadvantaged groups.

Socialist orientation is mainly implemented by market tools and social security policies, not non-market intervention in the operation of the economy.

This viewpoint was fully determined by our Party during the period when Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong was General Secretary. Currently, 72 countries recognize our country as having a market economy, including all ASEAN countries and large market economies such as Japan, the UK, Canada, Australia, etc.

Building a socialist rule-of-law state. For the first time, our Party defined “Our State is a socialist rule-of-law state” in the “Platform for national construction in the transitional period to socialism” revised at the 11th Party Congress in 2011, which was the Congress that decided that Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong would be the General Secretary for the first time. Also during the time Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong was the General Secretary, the socialist rule-of-law state was enshrined in the 2013 Constitution.

This Constitution also constitutionalized human rights and civil rights when it stipulated for the first time that "Human rights and civil rights can only be restricted according to the provisions of law in necessary cases for reasons of national defense, national security, social order and safety, social morality, and public health" (Clause 2, Article 14).

On November 9, 2022, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, on behalf of the Party Central Committee, signed Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW on "continuing to build and perfect the socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam in the new period," after the 6th Conference of the 13th Party Central Committee passed it, considering this a "key task of renewing the political system," affirming that "Respecting the Constitution and the law becomes the norm of conduct for all subjects in society." This Resolution needs time to be legalized and put into practice.

At the 13th National Party Congress (January 25, 2021 - February 2, 2021), General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong affirmed, "Our country has never had the foundation, potential, position and international prestige as it does today." That statement is completely correct.

The results of implementing the 10-year socio-economic strategy (2011-2020) set out at the 11th National Party Congress have increased the size of the economy by 2.4 times, of which 2020 is 1.4 times that of 2015. Vietnam is ranked 35th out of the 40 largest economies in the world, and is one of the 16 most successful emerging economies in the world. The economic growth rate is high, especially in the period 2016-2019, Vietnam is one of the 10 countries with the highest economic growth rate in the world. The poverty reduction campaign has achieved spectacular results, especially in the last 5 years of the strategy, the poverty rate decreased from 9.88% in 2015 to 2.75% in 2020.

According to the World Bank, Vietnam's universal health care has made great progress as living standards have improved. The universal health coverage index is 73 (out of 100), higher than the regional and world averages. Vietnam's average years of schooling are 10.2 years, ranking second in the region, after Singapore. Vietnam's human capital index is 0.69 (the highest scale is 1), ranking highest among economies with the same income level. People's access to infrastructure has improved significantly. As of 2019, 99.4% of the population used electricity for lighting, compared to 14% in 1993...

With its international position and prestige, Vietnam has established comprehensive partnerships with 12 countries; strategic partnerships with 18 countries, of which 7 countries are comprehensive strategic partners, most of these partnerships were established during the term of Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong as General Secretary.

Of the 7 comprehensive strategic partnerships with Vietnam, excluding China established in 2008, 6 were established during the time comrade Nguyen Phu Trong was General Secretary.

Our economy is increasingly integrating into the world economy. Of the 16 free trade agreements (FTAs) that Vietnam has signed and are in effect, half of them, including all 5 new generation AFTAs, were signed during the term of Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong as General Secretary.

FTAs, especially the new generation AFTA, not only strongly promote free trade and positively impact economic growth, but their high integration commitments have also promoted and shortened the completion of the legal system compatible with the market mechanism, quickly building and perfecting the institutions of a socialist-oriented market economy.

The above-mentioned outstanding achievements promoting the strong development of the country are the joint efforts of the Politburo, the Central Executive Committee, the Government and the entire political system over many terms, and are the inheritance and continuation of the achievements of nearly 40 years of national renovation, including the important role of comrade Nguyen Phu Trong as the head of our Party for more than 13 years.

At the most recent Party Congress, I was assigned by the General Secretary to be the Head of the Subcommittee on Socio-Economic Documents. Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong fully supported the new viewpoints and gave sharp instructions for the Subcommittee on Congress Documents to make new decisions, especially in building a socialist-oriented market economy and building a socialist rule-of-law state.

Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong also has a special interest in cultural development. In particular, he chaired the National Cultural Conference on November 24, 2021. This is a conference of historical significance commemorating the 75th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh chairing the first National Cultural Conference on November 24, 1946.

This conference summarized and summarized the process of cultural development after nearly 40 years of national renovation and opened a turning point in cultural revival and development, meeting the requirements of comprehensive development of the country in the new situation and bearing the mark of comrade Nguyen Phu Trong.

In the Special Announcement on the State Funeral of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, our Party and State acknowledged that "Comrade has made many great and especially outstanding contributions to the glorious revolutionary cause of the Party and the nation."

As a close colleague of yours, I see your contributions in promoting the innovation process in the country's development process with the timelines I have mentioned as the most remarkable mark.