Mr. Vo Van Thuong: Resources for cultural development are not only financial.

This workshop is a practical activity to implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the direction of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the 2021 National Cultural Conference.

Early completion of cultural institutions and policies is an urgent requirement.

Standing member of the Secretariat Vo Van Thuong affirmed that, through thousands of years of building and defending the country, our people have created a unique culture, the crystallization of the process of labor, fighting against natural disasters and enemies, inherited, supplemented, and developed through many generations, deeply demonstrating the level and art of dealing with nature and society. The rich cultural identity of the nation has been a support, creating endogenous strength for our country to overcome countless challenges and hardships, moving forward with the flow of history.

In recent years, especially the years of national renewal, with the attention, leadership and direction of Party committees, Party organizations and State agencies; the active participation of the Fatherland Front and mass organizations at all levels; the initiative and efforts of the cultural sector, the task of building and developing Vietnamese culture and people has had many positive changes. The quality and effectiveness of cultural activities have been gradually improved; many fine traditional cultural values ​​of the nation have been inherited and promoted.

Politburo member and Standing member of the Secretariat Vo Van Thuong speaks at the plenary session of the 2022 Cultural Conference.

The fight against, criticism of, and push back against the bad, the evil, and the backward are emphasized. Humanistic values, solidarity, mutual love, and mutual assistance are highly promoted, especially in times of national difficulty, natural disasters, and epidemics.

The legal system, mechanisms and policies on culture in general and specific areas of culture in particular have been gradually supplemented and improved, better meeting practical requirements. The Party's policies on important areas of culture have been institutionalized, creating a legal corridor to promote cultural development. Vietnam has ratified, participated in and internalized most international conventions on human rights, including cultural rights, promoted and protected cultural rights in accordance with international principles and standards, creating favorable conditions for exchange, cooperation, cultural promotion, and introduction of the country and people of Vietnam to the world.

However, the Standing Secretariat believes that the position and role of culture have not really been placed on par with the economic, political and social ones. The cultural environment has aspects that are not really healthy. The state of degradation in political ideology, ethics, lifestyle, individualism, "group interests", corruption, negativity and waste have not been pushed back. Toxic cultural products and negative information on the Internet and social networks have had a negative impact on young people, families and society.

Cultural leadership, direction and management have not kept up with practical requirements. The training and arrangement of cultural staff is not up to the task. The combined strength of the entire political system and the social activism of the people in participating in building a cultural environment have not been fully promoted...

The institutionalization of the Party's policies and guidelines on culture has not met the requirements. Some mechanisms and policies have not kept up with the development of social life. The organization and implementation of laws and policies on culture is still a weak link. Investment in culture is not at the right level, is still scattered, and is not very effective. Mechanisms and policies on economics in culture, culture in economics, and on mobilizing and managing resources for culture are not specific and clear. Some cultural and artistic fields do not have laws to manage them. Many policies for artists are outdated but are slow to be amended.

Our Party has determined: "Economic development is the center; Party building is the key; cultural development is the spiritual foundation; ensuring national defense and security is essential and constant." In order for culture to truly be the spiritual foundation of society, one of the urgent requirements is to soon perfect cultural institutions and policies to meet the requirements of national development in the new situation.

The 13th Party Congress decided that perfecting the synchronous institutions for national development is one of three strategic breakthroughs, emphasizing the need to "continue to strongly innovate thinking, build and perfect synchronous institutions for sustainable development in economics, politics, culture - society, environment..., promptly remove difficulties and obstacles; unleash all potentials and resources, create new momentum for the country's rapid and sustainable development".

Mr. Vo Van Thuong said that when discussing this content, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong pointed out: “We are building a socialist rule-of-law state - a state that truly creates an institutional and legal framework for the development of the country and the nation. Therefore, the legal system must be complete, timely, synchronous, unified, feasible, public, transparent, stable, ensuring the smooth operation of the State apparatus, both receiving and developing the affirmed values ​​of human civilization and being consistent with the good values ​​of Vietnamese culture, consistent with the requirements of our regime, creating new momentum for socio-economic development, rapid and sustainable national development. This is a matter of principle, very important, one of the characteristics of the socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam”.

Many important directional suggestions

Standing member of the Secretariat Vo Van Thuong also suggested many issues for the conference to study and refer to.

The firstIn the process of building institutions and policies on culture, it is necessary to thoroughly understand and deeply perceive the position and role of culture. It is necessary to have a correct, complete and comprehensive understanding of culture. Culture is the spiritual foundation of society, both the goal and the driving force for the sustainable development of the country. Culture must be placed on par with economics, politics and society.

Uncle Ho explained: “For the sake of survival as well as the purpose of life, mankind created and invented language, writing, ethics, law, science, religion, literature, art, tools for daily living of eating, dressing, living and methods of use. All of those creations and inventions are culture. Culture is the synthesis of all living methods and their manifestations that mankind has produced to adapt to the needs of life and the demands of survival.”

Thus, culture permeates and influences the entire social life, into each person, each family and community. Therefore, cultural institutions and policies must have their own characteristics and at the same time be integrated into institutions and policies on socio-economics, national defense, security, foreign affairs, and Party building, with culture as the foundation and at the same time the goal of these fields; must be consistent with the socialist orientation, effectively serving the task of building an advanced culture imbued with national identity, ensuring that people have a prosperous, free, happy, and comprehensively developed life.

The plenary session of the 2022 Cultural Conference took place on the afternoon of December 17 in Bac Ninh.

MondayCultural development institutions and policies must both meet practical requirements, respect specific cultural elements, and preserve and inherit the soul and noble values ​​of national culture; at the same time, selectively absorb the quintessence of world culture, enriching the Vietnamese cultural treasure.

Cultural institutions and policies must both create motivation for the development of Vietnamese culture and people, and introduce and disseminate Vietnamese culture to the world. In particular, in the field of literature and art, institutions, mechanisms and policies must focus on specificity, ensuring development in line with the Party's orientation, while ensuring the freedom of individual creativity for the right purpose.

In addition, it is necessary to focus on research and building institutions and policies for new areas such as developing cultural industries and cultural services; absorbing and applying new scientific and technological achievements to serve national development; preventing sabotage by hostile and reactionary forces...

TuesdayCultural institutions and policies must be complete, timely, synchronous, unified, feasible, public, transparent, stable, truly effective, and efficient, creating a favorable environment for cultural development; decentralization and transparent delegation of power, clearly defining the powers and obligations of implementing entities; clearly defining the responsibilities for inspection, supervision, and control of power.

The process of building and promulgating laws and policies must be cautious, certain, prepared early, done well at each stage, with high quality requirements, not chasing quantity; taking the legitimate and legal rights and interests of people, organizations, businesses, and national interests as the focus.

It is necessary to tighten discipline, promote responsibility, especially among leaders; resolutely fight against negativity, absolutely not allowing "policy corruption" and the incorporation of "group interests" and local interests in laws and policies.

In the process of building institutions and policies, we must closely follow reality and promptly resolve newly arising issues; we must be calm and thoroughly study practical issues, not be hasty, subjective, or follow public opinion, but we must not ignore them or let them be delayed, affecting development. Laws and policies should be built and promulgated for issues that are clear, tested in practice, and have a high level of consensus.

Wednesday, resources for cultural development are not only financial, physical facilities, but also human resources, geographical location, natural resources, national traditions...; not only state resources, but also resources of the whole society. Therefore, if there are correct, appropriate, comprehensive institutions and policies, it will unleash the country's enormous resources for the development of Vietnamese culture and people.

Of course, with its responsibility, in addition to taking care of building cultural human resources, the State must increase material resources for cultural development, commensurate with economic growth; reasonably increase investment from the state budget, and at the same time unleash social resources, domestic and foreign resources for cultural development.

The 13th Party Congress emphasized: "Increasing investment, exploiting and maximizing cultural resources along with innovating content and management methods, overcoming the situation of scattered and ineffective investment; strengthening inspection and supervision, ensuring high investment efficiency in the cultural field". In practice, world experience shows that if there are good institutions, policies and organizations, cultural activities are not only "spending money" but also contribute greatly to the national budget.

ThursdayAgencies and organizations in the political system must fully perceive and clearly define their responsibilities in the work of building laws and cultural policies; must closely and substantially coordinate in the process of building laws and policies; seriously solicit opinions, receive and explain opinions of subjects affected by laws and policies on culture.

In addition, continue to innovate methods and improve the effectiveness of the National Assembly's activities in legislation and supervision of law enforcement. Promote the dynamism, proactiveness and responsibility of agencies, especially the Government, in the process of law and policy making.

Improve the quality of social criticism work of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations in the process of building cultural institutions and policies and monitoring their implementation. Continue to improve the quality of the staff working on law and policy making; focus on attracting experts, scientists, and practical staff with experience and professional knowledge to participate in building cultural institutions and policies.

The Standing Secretariat emphasized that institutions, policies and resources for cultural development are important and practical. This is also a difficult issue, identified as one of the major bottlenecks in building and developing Vietnamese culture and people. The choice of topic and the way of organizing the workshop shows the correct, scientific and effective approach of the National Assembly in participating in deciding important issues of the country.

“I believe that, with the intellectual and enthusiastic contributions of the delegates to the Workshop, the results achieved will not only be valuable to the agencies organizing the workshop, but also help Party committees, Party organizations, cadres, Party members and people better understand the position and role of culture in the process of building and defending the Fatherland” – Mr. Vo Van Thuong expressed./.