General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong chaired the Politburo's working session with the Hanoi Party Committee Standing Committee.

Also attending were: Politburo member, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc; Politburo member, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan; Politburo members; leaders of many central departments, branches and agencies.

After listening to the report of the Standing Committee of the Hanoi Party Committee, the Politburo unanimously assessed: The Hanoi Party Committee has carefully, meticulously, seriously and scientifically prepared both documents and personnel work to present to the 17th Congress of the City Party Committee, ensuring compliance with the requirements of Directive 35-CT/TW and the Central's guiding documents.

The Hanoi Party Committee has organized a preliminary and final review of eight major work programs for the 16th tenure; solicited opinions from many central ministries, departments, branches, cadres, party members, and people, demonstrating the spirit of openness and democracy within the Party and among the people.

The Politburo basically agreed on the theme of the Hanoi Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term, ensuring completeness, succinctness, clearly demonstrating the political determination of the Party Committee and people of the city, ensuring inheritance and development of the results of the previous term.

The draft Political Report is highly general, closely follows 14 main tasks and solutions, and evaluates quite fully and comprehensively the results achieved in all fields; points out 7 groups of limitations and shortcomings, and 5 lessons learned. The directions, goals, and tasks for the 2020-2025 term, the development goals of the Capital until 2025, orientation to 2030, and vision to 2045 focus on 14 issues, in which the role and top importance of the task of strengthening Party building and rectification, and building a clean and strong City Party Committee are affirmed.

The Politburo believes that the Draft Political Report needs to be analyzed, summarized, and compared with the region, the whole country, and the previous term, further enhancing its generality and leadership.

During the past term, the Party Committee, government and people of the Capital strictly followed the leadership and direction of the Central Government, had many creative ways of doing things, and were determined to put the Resolutions of the Party and the City Party Committee into practice. The results were quite comprehensive, the city completed and exceeded 16/16 targets of the Resolution of the 16th Congress.

The economy grew quite well, higher than the national average and the 2010-2015 period; the quality of growth was improved. In 2020, the total gross regional domestic product (GRDP) was estimated at over 1 million billion VND, the average GRDP per capita was estimated at 5,420 USD, an increase of 1.5 times compared to 2015, 1.8 times higher than the national average. Budget revenue in the 2016-2020 period reached nearly 1,200 trillion VND, 1.64 times higher than the 2011-2015 period. Attracting foreign direct investment achieved outstanding results, reaching 25 billion USD in the 2016-2020 period, 3.9 times higher than the 2011-2015 period. The city contributed over 16% of GDP, 18.5% of budget revenue, and 20% of domestic revenue nationwide. The appearance of the capital has changed a lot, becoming brighter, greener, cleaner and more beautiful. A number of large-scale, modern projects have been started and completed. Urban civilized lifestyle has changed positively. New rural construction has achieved comprehensive results, by the end of 2020, 10 districts and 371 communes had met new rural standards, completing the target 2 years ahead of schedule.

The City Party Committee has been exemplary in seriously implementing the Central Resolutions on Party building and rectification work in conjunction with studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and lifestyle. The leadership capacity and fighting strength of Party organizations at all levels and the quality of cadres and Party members have been improved. The effectiveness and efficiency of government operations have been enhanced. The Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations have been reorganized and consolidated, with streamlined organizational structures and renewed content and methods of operation, becoming increasingly practical and effective.

The Politburo analyzed and pointed out the shortcomings and limitations that need to be overcome; at the same time, it suggested a number of contents that need to be studied, adjusted and supplemented in the next term. First of all, it is necessary to review and adjust economic development indicators to suit the actual situation, especially under the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. With GRDP per capita reaching 5,420 USD, Hanoi has entered a new stage of development, different in quality, and it is necessary to study and supplement a number of sustainable development indicators such as human development index, life expectancy, environmental sustainability index, etc.

The Politburo noted that Hanoi needs to aim for a development level on par with the region and the world; analyze more deeply the reasons why the city has not yet created "major breakthroughs" for economic development; clarify the implementation of specific mechanisms and policies to develop the capital (Capital Law, Resolutions of the Politburo, of the National Assembly, etc.).

The Politburo emphasized the need to evaluate and clarify the central role of the Capital as a leading locomotive, while sharing benefits with localities in the region and the whole country, thereby proposing a strategy for the development of the Capital for the period 2020-2025, as a spreading and nuclear driving force to effectively and sustainably connect and integrate the potential of the key economic region of the North, in the role of a center, an international gateway and demonstrating the nuclear, pioneering and leading role of Hanoi.

Concluding the meeting, Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong welcomed and highly appreciated the Hanoi Party Committee's preparations for the Congress; at the same time, he noted a major issue that needs attention in the process of leading and directing the implementation of goals and tasks for the upcoming term.

The General Secretary and President hopes that the Party Committee, the government and the people of Hanoi need to have a deeper and more complete understanding of the position, role, status and responsibility of the Capital and the Party Committee of the Capital. Hanoi has a particularly important role and position, because Hanoi is the Capital of the whole country, the Capital of conscience and human dignity, the face of the nation, the heart of the whole country, the city for peace. Hanoi's position now is much different from the past, its scale is large, not only 36 streets, not only Co Loa, but now it has expanded a lot. If we say our country has never had the foundation like today, then Hanoi has never had the scale, position, stature and high requirements like now.

Hanoi has a thousand-year history of civilization, a long-standing culture, a glorious revolutionary tradition; representing the tradition of civilization and heroism, peace and friendship of the Vietnamese people. Co Loa, Dong Do, Thang Long, Hanoi are representative of the thousand-year history of civilization of the Vietnamese people, a heroic nation, where the soul of the mountains and rivers of a thousand years has settled. Hanoi is sacred and gallant, a source of faith and hope...

The General Secretary and President emphasized the need to arouse the spirit of pride, love, and responsibility for Hanoi, the gathering place of the quintessence, the sacred land of talented people with many famous places and talents, the spirit of Thang Long, the sacred soul of mountains and rivers... Hanoi has many opportunities and advantages for development, where the central agencies are headquartered... Hanoi people are elegant and gallant: "Even if they are not fragrant, they are still jasmine flowers/ Even if they are not elegant, they are still people of Trang An"; it is necessary to propagate among the people, educate the young generation, in schools, to arouse pride, self-respect, and trust, thereby clearly seeing the responsibility towards Hanoi.

Hanoi has been honored by the State with the title of Heroic Capital and has been awarded the Gold Star Order three times.

Therefore, the requirements for Hanoi cannot be the same as for other localities, but must be higher than other localities. Hanoi must be a pioneer, exemplary, and a role model in all aspects, which has been determined for a long time, this Congress needs to have a new change - this is an objective requirement. When talking about Hanoi, we must talk about all fields, economic development is important, but we must focus on culture, Hanoi must be civilized, elegant, concretize the criteria for building Hanoi people, building the Capital, especially the issue of urban management, maintaining political security, order, social safety, ensuring absolute safety of central headquarters... Hanoi is first and foremost a political center, a cultural center, representing Vietnamese culture, economic development but must have culture, planning, not develop freely, chaotically... when doing something, do it thoroughly, on schedule.

The General Secretary and President pointed out: To do so, we must build the Party, build people, build organizations, discipline, work methodically, have inspections, and assign responsibilities clearly; if we can do it, we will reward those who cannot, we will punish those who violate, and we will handle violations. The Party organization must be good, the leadership must have high determination, great effort, solidarity, smooth coordination, sensitivity, correct policies, decisive actions, regular inspections, urging, strict handling, and absolutely no complacency...

The General Secretary and President especially noted that the capital Hanoi is the face of the whole country, the face of the nation, the image of Vietnam, and needs to expand relations with the capitals of other countries, while making the most of the assistance from the Central Government.

The General Secretary and President stated that the Central Government has the responsibility to care for and help Hanoi, create favorable conditions in terms of mechanisms, staff arrangement, etc.; at the same time, Hanoi must also apply and develop creatively, from the direction and assistance of the Central Government, take appropriate steps and methods; coordinate with other localities. Each locality has its own strengths, Hanoi needs to strengthen cooperation, take advantage of the strengths of other localities, with the spirit of Hanoi for the whole country and the whole country for Hanoi.

General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong requested the Standing Committee of the Hanoi Party Committee to fully absorb the Politburo's comments, complete the draft documents, prepare well and organize the 17th Congress of the Hanoi Party Committee successfully, creating a good impression in the coming term, bringing the capital Hanoi to further development and progress./.

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