General Secretary To Lam affirmed that the time to start a new era is the 14th National Party Congress.

Attending the exchange session were comrade Nguyen Xuan Thang, Politburo member, Director of Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council, Permanent Deputy Head of the Steering Committee of the class.

Below is the content of the discussion on the new era, the era of national growth by General Secretary To Lam:

Some basic perceptions about the new era, the era of national growth

General Secretary To Lam shared that an era is a historical period marked by important characteristics or events that have a great influence on the development of society - culture - politics - nature.

Eras are often used to divide time in history according to major events or fundamental changes in political life, science, technology, and the environment. For example: Industrial Era, Information Era, Digital Era, Space Era. Previously, there were Stone Age, Ancient Era, Medieval Era, etc.

The era of self-improvement implies creating a strong, decisive, drastic, positive, effortful, inner-strength, and confident movement to overcome challenges, surpass oneself, realize aspirations, reach goals, and achieve great achievements.

The new era, the era of the Vietnamese people's rise, is the era of development, the era of prosperity under the leadership and rule of the Communist Party, successfully building a socialist Vietnam, a rich people, a strong country, a democratic, fair, civilized society, on par with the world powers.

All people have a prosperous and happy life, are supported to develop and enrich themselves; contribute more and more to world peace, stability, development, human happiness and global civilization.

The destination of the era of self-improvement is a rich people, a strong country, a socialist society, standing shoulder to shoulder with the world powers. The top priority in the new era is to successfully implement the strategic goals by 2030, Vietnam will become a developing country with modern industry and high average income; by 2045 it will become a developed socialist country with high income; strongly arouse national spirit, spirit of self-reliance, self-confidence, self-reliance, national pride, and aspiration for national development; closely combine national strength with the strength of the times.

The new era begins at the 14th National Party Congress. From now on, all Vietnamese people, hundreds of millions of people as one, under the leadership of the Party, will unite, join forces, make the most of opportunities and advantages, push back risks and challenges, and bring the country to comprehensive and strong development, breakthroughs and take off.

The basis for positioning the target to bring the country into a new era, the era of national growth.

The General Secretary emphasized that the great achievements after 40 years of renovation under the leadership of the Party have helped Vietnam accumulate position and strength for breakthrough development in the next stage: From a poor, backward, low-level country, besieged and embargoed, Vietnam has become a developing country with average income, deeply and widely integrated into world politics, the global economy, and human civilization, taking on many important international responsibilities, and promoting an active role in many important multilateral organizations and forums. Independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity are maintained; national and ethnic interests are guaranteed.

The size of the economy in 2023 will increase 96 times compared to 1986. Vietnam is in the group of 40 countries with the largest economies in the world and the top 20 economies in terms of trade and foreign investment attraction; has diplomatic relations with 193 countries that are members of the United Nations; builds partnerships, strategic cooperation, and comprehensive strategic partnerships with all major powers in the world and the region.

People's lives have improved significantly, the poverty rate has decreased sharply; the Millennium Development Goals have been achieved early. Political, economic, cultural, social, scientific-technological, national defense and security potential has been continuously enhanced; actively contributing to maintaining peace and stability in the region and the world.

The world is in a period of epochal change. From now until 2030 is the most important period to establish a new world order. This is also a period of important strategic opportunity, the final stage of the Vietnamese revolution to achieve the 100-year strategic goal under the leadership of the Party, creating a solid foundation to achieve the goal of 100 years of national founding.

The epochal change brings new opportunities and advantages, but also many challenges, in which the challenges are more prominent and new opportunities can also appear in the moment between sudden changes in the world situation.

The 4th industrial revolution, especially artificial intelligence and digital technology, brings opportunities that developing and underdeveloped countries can seize to get ahead and develop rapidly.

The history of the Vietnamese revolution shows that, under the Party's wise and talented leadership, arousing the will of self-reliance, self-control, self-confidence, self-strengthening, national pride, mobilizing the strength of the entire people combined with the strength of the times, the Vietnamese revolutionary boat will achieve miracles (the miracle of a semi-feudal colonial democratic country being able to defeat two powerful colonial empires; the miracle of a country from being besieged and embargoed to successfully carrying out the renovation process with great achievements).

Now is the time for the Party's will to blend with the people's hearts in the aspiration to build a prosperous and happy country, soon successfully build socialism, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the world powers.

From the above issues, it can be seen that this is the time to "converge" all advantages and strengths to bring the country into a new era, an era of national growth following the era of independence, freedom, building socialism and the era of innovation.

General Secretary To Lam also discussed 7 strategic orientations to bring the country into a new era, an era of national growth:

1. On improving the Party's leadership method

During more than 94 years of leading the revolution, our Party has constantly researched, developed, supplemented, and perfected its leadership methods, and enhanced its leadership and governing capacity. This is the key factor ensuring that the Party is always clean and strong, steering the revolutionary boat through all rapids, achieving one victory after another.

The General Secretary pointed out that, besides the results, the innovation of the Party's leadership method still has many shortcomings and limitations: The situation of issuing many documents, some of which are general, scattered, overlapping, and slow to be supplemented, revised, and replaced.

Some major policies and orientations of the Party have not been institutionalized promptly and fully, or have been institutionalized but are not feasible.

The overall model of the political system is not yet complete; the functions, tasks, powers, and working relationships of organizations, individuals, and leaders are unclear; decentralization and delegation of power are not strong.

The organizational model of the Party and the political system still has shortcomings, making the boundary between leadership and management difficult to distinguish, easily leading to excuses, replacing or loosening the leadership role of the Party.

Administrative reform, innovation in working style and manners within the Party are still slow; meetings are still numerous.

The requirement to strongly innovate leadership methods, improve leadership capacity, governing capacity, ensure the Party is the great helmsman, leading our nation forward strongly is urgent, some strategic solutions are as follows:

Strictly implement the Party's leadership and governing methods, absolutely do not allow excuses, replace or loosen the Party's leadership.

Focus on streamlining the apparatus and organizing the Party's agencies, truly becoming the intellectual core, the "general staff", the vanguard of leading state agencies. In particular, research and promote the consolidation of a number of Party advisory and support agencies; promptly and comprehensively assess the concurrent holding of Party and political system positions to have appropriate decisions. Ensure that the Party's leadership tasks do not overlap with management tasks; distinguish and clearly define the specific tasks of leaders at all levels in different types of Party organizations, avoiding the situation of making excuses, or duplication, and formality.

Strongly innovate the promulgation, dissemination and implementation of Party resolutions; build grassroots Party organizations and Party members who are truly "cells" of the Party. Resolutions of Party committees and organizations at all levels must be concise, easy to understand, easy to remember, easy to absorb, easy to implement, accurately identify the requirements, tasks, paths and methods of development of the country, the nation, each locality, each ministry and sector; must have vision, scientific nature, practicality, practicality and feasibility; create excitement, trust, expectation and motivation to urge the actions of cadres, Party members, economic sectors, enterprises and people to implement the Party's Resolutions. Build strong grassroots Party cells with high combativeness, capable of putting Party resolutions into practice; innovate and improve the quality of grassroots Party cell activities, ensuring substantive and effective Party cell activities

Innovate inspection and supervision work; promote the application of information technology and digital transformation in Party activities. Issue regulations on decentralization of inspection and supervision authority in conjunction with the detection and strict handling of all acts of taking advantage of inspection and supervision for corruption and negativity.

2. On strengthening the Party spirit in building and perfecting the Socialist rule of law State of the people, by the people, for the people

After 2 years of implementing Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW on continuing to build and perfect the Socialist Rule of Law State of Vietnam in the new period, encouraging results have been achieved. However, the building and perfecting of the Socialist Rule of Law State of Vietnam still has many shortcomings and limitations.

Some major policies and orientations of the Party have not been institutionalized promptly and fully, or have been institutionalized but their feasibility is not high.

The legal system still has contradictory and overlapping provisions that are not suitable for economic and social development and are slow to be supplemented, amended, and replaced.

Mechanisms, policies and laws have not yet created a truly favorable environment to promote innovation and attract resources from domestic and foreign investors as well as from the people.

Of the three biggest bottlenecks today: institutions, infrastructure and human resources, institutions are the "bottleneck" of "bottlenecks", posing an urgent need to promote Party spirit in building a socialist rule-of-law state.

The General Secretary emphasized that, regarding the viewpoint: Laws in the socialist rule of law state need to be continuously improved to institutionalize the Party's guidelines and policies, promote democracy, serve the people, recognize, respect, ensure, and protect human rights and civil rights.

Regarding solutions, strongly innovate legislative work, including transforming the thinking of law-making towards both ensuring the requirements of State management and encouraging creativity, liberating all productive forces, and opening up all resources for development. Management thinking is not rigid, resolutely abandoning the thinking of "if you can't manage, then ban".

The provisions of the law must be stable and have long-term value; the law only regulates framework issues and issues of principle; it does not need to be too long. Practical issues that fluctuate frequently are assigned to the Government and localities to regulate to ensure flexibility in management. Absolutely do not administrativeize the activities of the National Assembly; legalize the provisions of Decrees and Circulars.

Innovate the process of building and organizing the implementation of laws. Closely follow the reality, stand on the ground of Vietnam's reality to build appropriate legal regulations; learn from experience while doing; do not be hasty, but also do not be perfectionist, so as not to lose opportunities; take people and businesses as the center and subject; regularly evaluate the effectiveness and quality of policies after promulgation to promptly adjust inadequacies and conflicts, minimize loss and waste of resources; proactively detect and quickly remove "bottlenecks" caused by legal regulations.

Promote decentralization and delegation of power with the motto "locality decides, locality acts, locality takes responsibility"; thoroughly reform administrative procedures, reduce compliance costs, and create the greatest convenience for people and businesses.

Focus on controlling power in law-making, tightening discipline, promoting responsibility, especially the responsibility of leaders, resolutely fighting against negativity and "group interests".

Proactively, actively, and urgently build a legal corridor for new issues and new trends (especially issues related to the 4.0 revolution, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, green transformation, etc.) to create a legal framework to successfully implement the digital transformation revolution, creating a breakthrough for the country's development in the following years.

3. On streamlining the organization for effective and efficient operations

The General Secretary pointed out that this task is very urgent.

Currently, 70% of the budget is used to support the apparatus, while the work of arranging and perfecting the organization of the State administrative apparatus to be streamlined, operate effectively and efficiently, reduce focal points and intermediate levels is still inadequate, some parts are still cumbersome, overlapping between the legislative and executive branches, not really meeting the requirements of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of management.

Some ministries and sectors still take on local tasks, leading to the existence of a mechanism of asking and giving, which can easily lead to negativity and corruption. The work of streamlining the payroll in connection with job positions, improving the quality and restructuring the team of civil servants and public employees is still not thorough.

This is one of the reasons leading to hindering development, increasing administrative procedures, wasting time and effort of businesses and citizens, and missing development opportunities for the country.

Strategic policy: Continue to focus on building and streamlining the organizational apparatus of the Party, National Assembly, Government, Fatherland Front, and socio-political organizations to operate effectively and efficiently; streamline the apparatus and organize Party agencies to truly be the intellectual core, the "general staff", and the vanguard leading state agencies.

Cut down on unnecessary intermediaries, reorganize the organization in a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary direction. Promote decentralization and delegation of power in the direction of "local decision, local action, local responsibility" associated with strengthening inspection and supervision, clearly defining responsibilities between the Central and local levels, between local authorities, between managers and workers. Complete the inspection and supervision mechanism, ensure unity in state management and promote proactiveness, creativity, and enhance the autonomy and self-reliance of localities.

Preliminary review and assessment of the implementation of Resolution No. 18 of the 6th Conference of the 12th Central Executive Committee "Some issues on continuing to innovate and reorganize the apparatus of the political system to be streamlined and operate effectively and efficiently" in the entire political system to be submitted to the 11th Central Conference of the 13th tenure; as a basis for new policies to strongly innovate the work of organizing cadres according to the direction agreed upon by the 10th Central Committee.

4. Digital transformation

Digital transformation is not simply the application of digital technology to socio-economic activities, but also the process of establishing a new, advanced and modern production method - "digital production method", in which the characteristic of the productive forces is the harmonious combination of humans and artificial intelligence; data becomes a resource, an important means of production; at the same time, production relations also have profound changes, especially in the form of ownership and distribution of digital means of production.

The General Secretary noted that inappropriate production relations are hindering the development of new productive forces: Mechanisms, policies and laws are not really synchronous, still overlap, and have not created a truly favorable environment to attract resources, especially resources from the people.

Administrative reform, digital transformation, e-government and digital government development are still limited. There are still cumbersome and outdated administrative procedures that require many stages and many doors, taking a lot of time and effort from people and businesses, easily giving rise to petty corruption, and hindering development. The connection and sharing of data between information systems of ministries, branches, localities and the national database are not smooth; many online public services are of low quality, with low user rates; the organization and operation of "one-stop" departments at all levels in many places is not effective.

Implement the digital transformation revolution with strong and comprehensive reforms to adjust production relations, create new momentum for development, take full advantage of opportunities and advantages brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and bring the country to a leapfrog and develop rapidly. The Politburo will soon study and issue a Resolution on national digital transformation to lead the drastic implementation throughout the Party and the entire political system.

Some key solutions include: focusing on building a legal corridor for digital development, creating a foundation for Vietnam to seize opportunities from the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Regularly reviewing and promptly amending inappropriate regulations, creating a corridor for new economic models such as the sharing economy, circular economy, artificial intelligence... ensuring that the legal framework does not become a barrier to development, while ensuring national security, protecting the rights and legitimate interests of people and businesses.

Have a breakthrough mechanism to attract domestic and foreign talents; build a strategy to develop human resources with knowledge, skills and innovative thinking, meeting the requirements of the digital economy and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Promote the application of information technology, build a digital platform to connect and share data between agencies and organizations. The goal is that by 2030, Vietnam will be among the top 50 countries in the world and ranked 3rd in ASEAN in terms of e-government and digital economy.

Promote digital transformation in conjunction with ensuring security and safety. Focus on building a digital society, comprehensively digitizing state management activities, and providing high-level online public services. Synchronously connect national databases on population, land, and enterprises, creating a foundation for streamlining the apparatus and substantially reforming administrative procedures. Develop the digital economy, build digital citizens.

5. Anti-waste

The General Secretary pointed out that in reality, “Waste, although not pocketing public money, is still very harmful to the people and the Government. Sometimes it is more harmful than embezzlement”[1], but waste is currently quite common, in many different forms, and has caused many serious consequences for development (causing a decline in human resources, financial resources, reducing production efficiency, increasing cost burdens, depleting resources, widening the gap between rich and poor; causing a decline in people's trust in the Party and the State, creating invisible barriers in socio-economic development, and missing out on development opportunities for the country).

Some forms of waste are emerging fiercely today, namely: The quality of law making and completion does not meet practical requirements, leading to difficulties, hindering implementation, causing loss and waste of resources.

Waste of time and effort of businesses and individuals when administrative procedures are cumbersome and online public services are not convenient and smooth.

Wasted development opportunities for localities and the country due to ineffective operations of the state apparatus in some places and at some times; a number of officials lack capacity, avoid and push away work, and fear responsibility; due to low quality and labor productivity.

Waste of natural resources; waste of public assets due to ineffective management and use, including disbursement of public investment capital; equitization and divestment of state-owned enterprises; rearrangement and handling of state-owned houses and land; implementation of national programs and targets, and credit packages to support social security development are mostly very slow.

Waste in production, business and consumption activities of the People takes place in many forms.

Waste is caused by the system of standards, norms, and regimes, some of which are not suitable for reality but are slow to be revised and supplemented. Meanwhile, waste handling has not been promoted, often associated with corruption handling as a consequence; there has not been a widespread emulation movement on practicing thrift and fighting waste as well as strong public opinion to criticize and condemn wasteful behaviors; the building of a culture of thrift and non-waste in society has not received due attention.

The strategic solution for the coming years is: Strengthening the prevention and fight against waste, equivalent to the prevention and fight against corruption and negativity. From issuing Party regulations to identify national strategies, legal regulations and implementation throughout the Party, the entire people, and the entire army; strictly handling individuals and groups whose actions and behaviors cause loss and waste of public assets in the spirit of "handling one case to alert the whole region and field".

Review and supplement regulations on management mechanisms and economic and technical norms that are no longer suitable for the country's development practices. Complete regulations on handling wasteful behavior; regulations on management and use of public assets; institutions in the application of information technology, digital transformation, creating synchronization in transformation to minimize waste.

Resolutely resolve the long-standing problems of important national projects, key projects, low-efficiency projects, causing great loss and waste; weak commercial banks. Quickly complete equitization, improve the operational efficiency of state-owned enterprises.

Building a culture of preventing and combating waste; making the practice of thrift and combating waste "voluntary", "self-conscious", "daily food, water, and clothing".

6. Staff

Cadres and cadre work are “very important” issues, “deciding everything”, “cadres are the root of all work”, and are the decisive factor for the success or failure of the revolution. Building a cadre team with enough capacity to lead the country into a new era, an era of national development, is an urgent issue.

Regarding the qualities and requirements for cadres in the new revolutionary period, General Secretary To Lam emphasized: Having a strong political stance, pure moral qualities, daring to think, daring to do, daring to take responsibility, daring to innovate, daring to make breakthroughs for the common good; wholeheartedly serving the Fatherland and the people, always putting the interests of the nation, the people, and the interests of the people above all else.

Have courage, high determination, ready to commit, sacrifice personal interests. Dare to take the lead, innovate, eliminate the old, the backward; clear bottlenecks, resolve difficulties, and blockages in practice, bring high efficiency in performing duties and tasks; resolve outstanding, long-standing errors or make breakthroughs on new issues that do not have regulations or regulations that are overlapping, inconsistent, and difficult to implement.

Have specific capacity to organize and implement, put the Party's strategic policies into practice in each ministry, department, branch, and locality (digital transformation, green transformation, strategic infrastructure development, thorough reform of administrative procedures, etc.).

The General Secretary clearly stated the solution to build a team of cadres in the new period. That is: strongly innovate the work of recruitment, training, promotion, appointment, rotation, transfer, and evaluation of cadres in a practical direction, for finding people, on the basis of specific measurable products.

Strengthen self-training and self-improvement, especially for the requirements of digital transformation.

Build a mechanism to encourage and protect cadres with innovative thinking, who dare to think, dare to do, dare to break through, dare to take responsibility for the common good on the basis of clearly distinguishing those who dare to think, dare to do, dare to innovate and create for the common good from those who are adventurous, reckless, fanciful, and unrealistic; protect cases of risk and error early, as soon as there is a plan, not to let them be discouraged.

Screen and remove from work those who do not have enough qualities, capacity and prestige.

Focus on training, fostering, and testing comrades who are planned to participate in Party committees and standing committees of Party committees at all levels, ensuring the selection of Party committees, especially leaders with leadership capacity, high fighting spirit, daring to think, daring to do, daring to take responsibility, daring to innovate for the common cause, having the capacity to lead the successful implementation of Party policies, and bringing Party resolutions into practice in each field and locality.

7. About economy

Vietnam's overall economy has grown continuously since the implementation of the 1991 Platform, regularly being among the countries with high growth rates in the region and the world, bringing Vietnam from a low-income country to a middle-income country.

The General Secretary pointed out that although the growth rate is high, the risk of economic lag still exists, the risk of Vietnam's economy falling into the middle-income trap and having difficulty approaching developing countries, shown in 5 points: Vietnam's labor productivity growth rate is gradually decreasing, lower than many countries in the region (the period 2021-2025 is estimated at 4.8%, lower than the average of 3 years 2016-2018 (6.1%), not reaching the set target (6.5%), while from the same starting point as Vietnam, China in the early 1990s increased continuously every year, reaching 9%.

Total factor productivity - an important factor in growth quality - also tends to decrease (2015-2019 period reached 2.77%, leading the ASEAN region, -1.36% in 2022, -2% in 2023), showing that the efficiency of the economy tends to decrease.

Vietnam's growth from 2021 to present mainly depends on exports, in which the FDI sector accounts for over 70% (equivalent to 60% of GDP); these enterprises import over 80% of components and equipment, only use simple production materials from Vietnam such as labor, land, basic raw materials, which does not help Vietnam build supporting industries and domestic enterprises with high competitiveness in the global value chain (Vietnamese enterprises participating in the supply chain are only simple products). When the golden population period ends (around 2027-2037), labor costs increase, competitive advantages are gone, FDI moves to other countries or declines, which will seriously affect Vietnam's economy.

The situation where many officials and civil servants are afraid of responsibility, shirk responsibility, avoid work, are afraid of innovation, do not dare to think or do, affects the quality of public service performance, and has a negative impact on socio-economic development.

Resources for economic development have not been effectively promoted (human resources are still limited when labor productivity and work motivation of state management officials decrease; material resources are still wasted, financial resources have not been exploited): Waste in land use (while the construction of the National Land Database is slow), minerals (mainly mining and raw processing); ineffective in developing transport infrastructure (planning for airport and seaport infrastructure development is spread out, investment is fragmented in many localities with close geographical locations, without distinct advantages); imbalance in energy infrastructure; unsustainable financial and monetary markets when large amounts of capital are frozen in real estate.

The causes of the above situation are: Institutional bottlenecks and limitations in law enforcement. Fear of making mistakes, fear of responsibility, not daring to do things, avoiding responsibility, pushing work to higher management agencies or to other ministries and branches.

The transformation of the economic model from breadth to depth is slow. Public investment progress is slow, capital use efficiency is not high, still scattered, there is much waste, and the leading role and effective activation of non-state resources have not been promoted. The restructuring of credit institutions and the handling of weak credit institutions are slow; the situation of "cross-ownership" and credit lending to "internal" and "backyard" enterprises is still complicated and there are no thorough solutions. The identification of strategic and high-value national industries has not received attention.

Infrastructure and urban development systems lack connectivity; digital infrastructure construction is slow.

The private economy has not yet become an important driving force of the economy and has not yet made good use of foreign investment resources.

The application and development of science and technology have not yet brought about clear results; the quality of human resources is still limited, lacking highly qualified workers to meet the development needs of key economic sectors, high technology, and serving digital development.

External factors have negative impacts, increasing the risk of economic decline.

The General Secretary pointed out a number of solutions and strategic directions for economic development, pushing back the risk of falling behind and the middle-income trap: Stronger breakthroughs in development institutions, removing bottlenecks and barriers, taking people and businesses as the center, mobilizing and unleashing all internal and external resources, resources within the people, developing science and technology synchronously and smoothly, all for the economic - cultural and social development of the country and developing and improving the material and spiritual life of the people; synchronization and breakthroughs in building socio-economic infrastructure are the highest priority.

Focus on building a Vietnamese socialist model, focusing on building socialist people, creating the foundation for building a socialist society as defined by the Party Platform (rich people, strong country, democracy, fairness, civilization, people as masters, managed by the State, led by the Communist Party).

Focus on developing new productive forces (combining high-quality human resources with new means of production, strategic infrastructure for transportation, digital transformation, green transformation) associated with perfecting production relations.

Initiate and implement the digital transformation revolution. Promote strategic technology, digital transformation, green transformation, taking science and technology, innovation as the main driving force for development.
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[1] Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, op. cit., vol. 7, p. 357