Comrade Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh: Arousing the spirit of self-reliance and the aspiration to rise up in Uncle Ho's homeland

...President Ho Chi Minh once said, "Emulation takes patriotism as the root", "To make everyone's work progress further, it is necessary to promote the patriotic emulation movement, and make the emulation movement always exciting and continuous, becoming a voluntary activity of everyone", "Daily work is the foundation of emulation".

Promoting the tradition of patriotic emulation initiated by President Ho Chi Minh, over the past 70 years, many patriotic emulation movements have been launched and implemented deeply and widely throughout the country, contributing to creating great spiritual strength and motivation, leading the Vietnamese revolutionary boat from one victory to another.

Our people, under the leadership of the Communist Party, have gloriously completed the struggle for national liberation, national reunification, building and firmly defending the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam, and have achieved great and historic achievements in 35 years of renovation.

Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh speaks at the Patriotic Emulation Congress of Nghe An province for the 2015-2020 period. Photo: Thanh Duy

With the theme "Innovation, creativity, emulation to build Nghe An to develop rapidly and sustainably, worthy of being the center of the North Central region"; through monitoring, listening to reports and discussions of advanced models, I highly appreciate the Party Committee, government and people of all ethnic groups in Nghe An province, in the past 5 years, have promoted the revolutionary tradition of the Soviet homeland, done well in emulation and reward work, demonstrated in the following highlights:

Party committees and authorities at all levels have paid attention to leading, directing and organizing patriotic emulation movements. Right from the beginning of the term, Nghe An Provincial Party Committee issued Directive No. 02-CT/TU dated March 1, 2016 on continuing to innovate emulation and reward work, successfully implementing the Resolution of the 18th Provincial Party Congress.

Thanks to that, the province's patriotic emulation movement has been organized comprehensively, regularly, continuously, and developed in both breadth and depth. It can be said that the emulation movements in each sector, each field of economy, culture - society, national defense, security, Party building, and political system building such as: "Nghe An follows Uncle Ho's advice", "Good advice, good direction", "Good labor, creative labor", "Good teaching, good learning", "A bowl of porridge of love", "Drops of red Nghe An", "A shining example of medical ethics", "Promoting tradition, dedicating talent, forgetting oneself for the country, serving the people", "Accompanying women in the border areas", "Peaceful religious villages"...

In particular, the implementation of 4 emulation movements launched by the Prime Minister: Emulation movement "Nghe An joins hands to build new rural areas" for the period 2016 - 2020; Emulation movement "Nghe An enterprises integrate and develop"; Emulation movement "Nghe An joins hands for the poor - leaving no one behind"; Emulation movement "Nghe An officials, civil servants and public employees compete to practice office culture" has contributed to promoting Nghe An's socio-economic development quite comprehensively.

The average GRDP growth rate in the 2016 - 2020 period is estimated at 7.84%; the economic structure has shifted in a positive direction; annual budget revenue has reached and exceeded the estimate; the investment and business environment has improved significantly; the province's competitiveness index (PCI) has improved significantly, from 32nd place (in 2015) to 18th place (in 2019), ranking first among the 6 North Central provinces.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee visited the production line of the bamboo and rattan processing facility in Que Phong; visited production models in Quy Chau district. Photo: Pham Bang

The marine and coastal economy has developed rapidly and quite comprehensively. Nghe An is especially interested in calling on people from the homeland to invest in the province, such as TH Group, which has contributed greatly to the economic scale of the province (about 56% of GRDP). The new rural construction program has made strong changes, the number of communes and districts meeting the new rural criteria has exceeded the target of the Congress Resolution and is higher than the national average.

By the end of 2019, the whole province had 265 communes (reaching 61.48%, national average 54%), 04 districts completed new rural construction; 674 villages and hamlets met new rural standards according to the province's criteria.

The cultural and social fields have achieved many important results. Education and training continue to affirm their leading position in the country. Health care has developed evenly at all levels, non-public health care has developed rapidly, currently ranking 3rd in the country in terms of health socialization. The work of job creation, hunger eradication and poverty reduction has achieved positive results; the poverty rate has decreased from 12% (in 2015), expected to be 3% by the end of 2020; the material and spiritual life of the people has improved significantly.

Party building and political system building are focused on; national defense and security are ensured; borders and islands are firmly protected; foreign relations are increasingly expanded and deepened.

Through patriotic emulation movements, many good examples, good practices, and advanced models have appeared more and more, demonstrating the will to be hardworking, to strive, and the creative spirit of the people of Nghe An.

Reward work is carried out closely, promptly and with quality assurance; attention is paid to and emphasis is given to extraordinary rewards, thematic rewards, and rewards associated with emulation movements.

The province has paid attention to praising small collectives, the reward rate for direct laborers, remote areas, border areas, and islands. The reward rate for direct laborers is increasingly high (reaching 62% of the total rewards of the Provincial People's Committee Chairman).

The activities of emulation clusters and blocks are increasingly diverse and of high quality; the Emulation and Reward Council and the Science and Initiative Council at all levels are consolidated, and their operational efficiency is clearly improved.

On behalf of the Party, State and Central Emulation and Reward Council, I warmly congratulate, commend and highly appreciate the achievements in the emulation movement and reward work of Nghe An province in the past 5 years; especially, I warmly commend the 189 collectives and individuals who are typical in all fields for attending the Congress today...

On this occasion, I also acknowledge and appreciate the Emulation and Reward Council and the team of officials working on emulation work in Nghe An province for promoting their core role, actively working, and effectively contributing to the emulation movement and reward work of the province to achieve positive results.

… I highly appreciate and agree with the directions, goals and 6 main tasks, 10 key solutions as the directions proposed in the report. At this Congress, I would like to suggest and request Nghe An province to pay more attention to some contents:

Continue to effectively implement the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's laws on emulation and rewards, especially Directive 34-CT/TW dated April 7, 2014 of the Politburo on continuing to innovate emulation and rewards; create a strong change in awareness of the role, position and effect of emulation and rewards in the new situation.

Strengthen the leadership of Party committees at all levels, the direction and administration of the government with the coordination of the Fatherland Front and mass organizations at all levels in emulation and reward work. Strongly promote the coordination, mobilization and implementation of emulation movements of the Fatherland Front and mass organizations.

Continue to effectively implement patriotic emulation movements launched by the Central Government, Ministries, branches and provinces, associated with promoting the study and following of Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and lifestyle so that Nghe An is always a bright spot, leading the country in organizing patriotic emulation movements, implementing his "patriotic emulation ideology".

The patriotic emulation movement must be closely linked to the good implementation of political tasks in each period. For Nghe An in the coming time, it is necessary to continue to promote the work of building a clean and strong Party and political system; promote revolutionary traditions, arouse the will to be self-reliant and the desire to rise up; promote the application and development of science, technology and innovation, aiming at the goal of making Nghe An develop rapidly and sustainably in terms of economy, society, national defense and security; strive by 2025, Nghe An will become a province with a fairly developed level in the North Central region.

Continue to innovate and improve the quality of commendation work, ensuring accuracy, fairness and timeliness. Collectives and individuals proposed for commendation must be truly exemplary for everyone to learn and follow; focus on "commendation" combined with "reward" in a reasonable manner.

Pay attention to rewarding direct laborers, those in remote, border, and island areas; increase the rate of commendation (at the State level) and commend good examples of laborers among farmers, workers, soldiers, businessmen... to further encourage people of all walks of life in the emulation movement.

Organize well the commendation and honoring of groups and individuals with outstanding achievements to create new motivation and new spirit.

Timely propagate typical advanced examples, good people and good deeds and widely replicate them in the province's patriotic emulation garden.

With the revolutionary tradition of President Ho Chi Minh's homeland, with the spirit of diligence, creativity and will to rise up, I believe that the Party Committee, government and people of Nghe An province will overcome difficulties and challenges, move forward steadily, build Nghe An province to develop more and more, and achieve many outstanding achievements to welcome the 10th National Patriotic Emulation Congress and the 13th National Party Congress.