10th Party Congress: Changes in perception and thinking

10th PARTY CONGRESS

Time:April 18 to 25, 2006

Location:Hanoi capital

Number of delegates attending the Congress:1,176 delegates

Number of party members in the country:3.1 million

Congress elected:

- General Secretary: Comrade Nong Duc Manh

- Central Executive Committee: 160 official members and 21 alternate members.

- Politburo: 14 members

GENERAL CONTEXT

- Economic globalization creates development opportunities but also contains many elements of inequality, causing great difficulties and challenges for countries, especially developing countries.

- Economic and trade competition between countries is increasingly fierce.

- Local wars, armed conflicts, ethnic and religious conflicts, arms races, interventions, subversion, secession, terrorist activities, disputes over borders, territories, seas and islands and natural resources continue to occur in many places with increasingly complex nature.

- Domestically, after 20 years of renovation (1986-2006), our country's position and power have grown stronger and stronger. Expanding international cooperation, proactively and actively integrating into the international economy, and maintaining a peaceful environment have created more favorable conditions for our people to innovate and develop the economy and society at a faster pace.

However, our country is facing many great challenges: the risk of falling further behind economically compared to many countries in the region and the world; the state of political, ideological, moral and lifestyle degradation of a number of cadres and party members; hostile forces continue to carry out the plot of "peaceful evolution", causing riots and overthrow, in order to change the political regime in our country.

PROMOTING THE STRENGTH OF THE WHOLE NATION, SOON BRINGING OUR COUNTRY OUT OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT

The Congress reviews and evaluates objectively and comprehensively the achievements, weaknesses and shortcomings, and at the same time draws lessons from the implementation of the Resolution of the 9th Party Congress, looks back at 20 years of renovation, and from there continues to develop and perfect the guidelines and viewpoints, sets out the directions, goals and tasks for national development in the 5 years (2006-2010); the directions and tasks for Party building; and supplements and amends a number of points in the Party Charter.

The Political Report was approved by the Congress with the title: "Enhancing the leadership capacity and fighting strength of the Party, promoting the strength of the entire nation, comprehensively promoting the renovation process, and soon bringing our country out of underdevelopment".

The Congress affirmed: Over the past twenty years, with the efforts of the entire Party, people and army, the renovation process in our country has achieved great and historic achievements. The country has emerged from the socio-economic crisis, with fundamental and comprehensive changes. The economy has grown quite rapidly; the cause of industrialization, modernization and development of a socialist-oriented market economy is being promoted. People's lives have improved significantly. The political system and the great national unity bloc have been consolidated and strengthened. Politics and society are stable. National defense and security have been maintained. Our country's position in the international arena has been constantly enhanced. The nation's overall strength has increased significantly, creating a new position and strength for the country to continue moving forward with good prospects.

Awareness of socialism and the path to socialism is increasingly clearer; the system of theoretical viewpoints on the renovation process, socialist society and the path to socialism in Vietnam has been formed on the basic features.

The Congress adopted the goals and directions for national development in the 5 years 2006-2010 as follows: To enhance the leadership capacity and fighting strength of the Party, promote the strength of the entire nation, comprehensively promote the renovation process, mobilize and make good use of all resources for the country's industrialization and modernization; develop culture; achieve social progress and equity; strengthen national defense and security, expand foreign relations; proactively and actively integrate into the international economy; maintain political and social stability; soon bring our country out of underdevelopment; create a foundation for our country to basically become a modern industrialized country by 2020.

The Congress elected a Central Committee consisting of 160 official members and 21 alternate members. Comrade Nong Duc Manh was re-elected as General Secretary of the Party.

DOMESTIC EVENTS

- June 20-25, 2005: Prime Minister Phan Van Khai visited the United States. This was the first visit by a Vietnamese Prime Minister to the United States after 30 years of the end of the war and 10 years of normalizing relations between the two countries.

- November 25, 2005: UNESCO recognized the Central Highlands Gong Cultural Space as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

- November 29, 2005: The Law on Practicing Thrift and Combating Wastefulness; and the Law on Preventing and Combating Corruption were passed at the 8th session of the 11th National Assembly.

These two laws officially took effect from June 1, 2006.

- November 28, 2005: Groundbreaking ceremony of Dung Quat Oil Refinery - Vietnam's first oil refinery.

After more than 5 years, on January 6, 2011, Dung Quat Oil Refinery was inaugurated.

- December 2, 2005: Construction of Son La Hydropower Plant started

After 7 years of construction, Son La Hydropower Plant was inaugurated on December 23, 2012, becoming the largest hydropower plant in Vietnam and Southeast Asia at that time.

- 2005: Two Diaries of Martyrs Dang Thuy Tram and Nguyen Van Thac were announced and published.

- November 7, 2006: Vietnam was admitted as the 150th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), after 11 years of negotiations.

- November 12-19, 2006: Vietnam successfully organized the APEC-14 Summit Week (14th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum)

- December 8 and 9, 2006: The US House of Representatives and Senate passed Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for Vietnam, marking the full normalization of bilateral relations.

- Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Vietnam in 2006 reached a record of over 10 billion USD. This is the highest FDI attraction since the Law on Foreign Investment in Vietnam in 1997, showing that Vietnam has truly become a promising destination for many large investors.

INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

- January 20, 2005: US President George W. Bush took office for his second term.

- January 18, 2005: Airbus Group officially introduced the world's largest commercial aircraft, the A380.

- February 16, 2005: The Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions officially comes into full and comprehensive effect.

- March 9, 2005: Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra was elected Prime Minister of Thailand for a second term.

More than a year later, on September 19, 2006, a military coup overthrew the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

- April 2, 2005: Pope John Paul II passed away. Pope Benedict XVI was elected as the new Pope of the Vatican.

- July 7, 2005: Bombings on the subway and bus systems in London, England, killed 52 people and injured nearly 800.

- November 22, 2005: Ms. Angela Merkel was approved by the German Parliament as Chancellor, becoming the first female Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

- Late 2005: Avian influenza broke out strongly and spread across continents.

- February 1, 2006: Seven newspapers in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain reprinted several cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in January 2006, causing a wave of outrage in the Muslim world around the world.

- May 27, 2006: A 6.3-magnitude earthquake in Java, Indonesia killed 5,800 people and injured 45,000.

- August 1, 2006: Cuban President Fidel Castro fell seriously ill and temporarily transferred power to Vice President Raul Castro.

- October 9, 2006: North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, declaring it possessed nuclear weapons, causing public outrage and causing negotiations to come to a standstill.

- October 13, 2006: South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was elected the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations.

- November 5, 2006: The Iraqi Special Court sentenced former President Saddam Hussein to death.