Preparing strategic personnel is increasingly democratic, rigorous and thorough.

The strategic personnel work for the 13th tenure has been prepared by the Politburo and the Central Executive Committee with a determined but also very careful spirit.

The 13th National Congress of the Party is approaching. This is a major event of historical significance, marking a new development step for the country. Each congress is a personnel transfer, which is highly anticipated by the people.

When it comes to preparing personnel for the Congress, we are talking about preparing personnel for the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat and key leadership positions of the Party and the State. This is an extremely important task, which will determine the fate of the Party and the development of the country in the coming years.

Therefore, to have a team of qualified cadres, meeting the practical requirements of national development, requires a team of united, unified, inheriting, complementing each other, promoting strengths, limiting shortcomings.

Staff evaluation is not only qualitative, but also quantitative.

With such a way of posing the issue, the strategic personnel work for the 13th term has been prepared by the Politburo and the Central Executive Committee for nearly the past 2 years with a determined but also very cautious spirit.

Notably, the issuance of Regulation 214/2020 replacing Regulation 90/2017 has shown the Party's first determination to focus on perfecting the institution, with innovations in title standards and assessment criteria. The new contents of Regulation 214 have shown that the assessment is not only qualitative but also quantitative with specific standards and criteria.

For the four key leadership positions of the Party and State in Regulation 214, the Politburo added a particularly important criterion: must be a “center of solidarity”, replacing the phrase “nucleus of solidarity” in Regulation 90 and must have “high prestige among the people”. These criteria demonstrate the Party’s consistent viewpoint of taking “the people as the root”.

With the title of General Secretary, Regulation 214 adds very important qualities such as "Gathering and promoting the combined strength of the entire political system, the entire Party, the entire people and the strength of the times to successfully carry out the two strategic tasks of building and defending the Fatherland, the goal of "rich people, strong country, democracy, fairness, civilization".

In particular, the Regulation also adds the criteria that the General Secretary must be a person with “sharp thinking” and “calm and clear-headedness” when facing difficult and complicated issues related to the fate of the Party and the nation. These are two important qualities for the highest leader of the Party.

Regulation 214 also has a very important addition on ethical standards and lifestyle for cadres under the Central management, which is "no profiteering". Previously, Regulation 90 only mentioned "not letting relatives and acquaintances take advantage of one's position and authority for personal gain". The addition of the criterion of "no profiteering" for cadres under the Central management is considered necessary, because in the conditions of opening up and developing the market economy, cadres and party members, especially strategic cadres, are always facing temptations, requiring them to regularly practice and cultivate ethics; must always be vigilant to overcome temptations and desires for material things, fame and profit.

Along with Regulation 214 is Regulation 205 on controlling power in personnel work and preventing the abuse of power and position. It can be said that this is the first time that the acts of abuse of power and position related to personnel work have been clearly stated by the Party in a regulation of the Politburo.

Initially, through the results of the Congresses at all levels for the 2020-2025 term, Regulation 205 has shown its effectiveness. As noted by the General Secretary and President himself: The manifestations of campaigning and seeking votes have been basically overcome, the situation of running for positions, running for power, localism, and group interests has significantly decreased.

Directing vigorously, decisively but cautiously

To achieve the results as assessed by the General Secretary and President, it must be affirmed that, along with the vigorous, decisive but also very careful direction of the Politburo and the Secretariat, it is impossible not to mention the 3 articles of the General Secretary and President with in-depth, sharp directions, especially on personnel work.

General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong delivered a speech at the 14th Central Conference.

In the article on personnel preparation for the 13th National Congress, the General Secretary and President gave very clear instructions for the process of selecting, arranging, and assigning personnel: “The point of view is not to be too perfectionist, not too absolutist. The important thing is to know how to distinguish and accurately assess the nature and extent of those strengths and weaknesses so as not to choose the wrong person and to have a way to arrange and assign personnel appropriately to promote the strengths, limit the weaknesses of each member, complement each other, create a strong team, a relatively complete leadership group, not causing harm to the interests of the Party, the nation, and the collective.”

The articles and speeches of General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong not only demonstrate the concern, concern, enthusiasm and high sense of responsibility of the Party and State leader towards the Party and the people, but also the consistent and consistent direction of the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo and the Secretariat on personnel preparation for the 13th National Party Congress.

It can be said that in no other congress has the personnel work been so carefully directed by the Central Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat. For the first time, the Politburo established a Steering Committee solely to develop a strategic-level personnel plan for the 2021-2026 term, headed by General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong. The strategic personnel planning work is carried out step by step, each task carefully, thoroughly, and ensures democracy, publicity, objectivity, and transparency. Based on the planning list of Party committees, Party organizations, and leaders of agencies and units under the Central Committee, the Steering Committee for Strategic-level Personnel Planning, the Personnel Subcommittee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, and relevant functional agencies have carefully reviewed and assessed each personnel before submitting it to the Central Executive Committee for consideration and decision.

A new approach in the strategic-level cadre planning in the 13th term is that the number of cadres planned is smaller and more rigorous than in the 12th term. At the same time, the organization of training courses has also been innovated and made more effective. Through many planning, supplementation and adjustment sessions, the Central Committee voted by secret ballot to introduce and include more than 220 strategic-level cadres in the planning, a reduction of nearly 300 people compared to the number planned for the 12th term.

Along with that, the planning of the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat and key leadership positions of the Party and State for the 2021-2026 term is also carried out step by step carefully according to a strict and democratic process, first of all focusing on personnel planning to serve the 13th Congress, it is impossible to plan personnel for the 13th term and then plan personnel for the following terms like the previous term. In the personnel planning of the 13th Congress, the planning of the Central Executive Committee is carried out first; the planning of the Politburo and the Secretariat is carried out later; and finally the planning of key leadership positions of the Party and State.

Personnel work for the 13th Congress also receives special attention in terms of quality on the basis of ensuring quantity and reasonable structure, but not lowering standards because of structure.

In particular, the personnel preparation is carried out according to a 5-step process and order: Prepare personnel for re-election to the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat first, then new personnel to join, and finally "special cases". The application of the 5-step process with 5 reviews, 5 votes, 5 opinions, is considered a very important new point at this congress, it helps to expand personnel work to be more democratic, stricter, more objective and thorough than the previous 3-step process, thereby creating higher consensus and unity.