Strengthening close ties between the people and the Party and State

On the afternoon of September 27, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) held a press conference to announce the results of the National Congress of the VFF for the 2014-2019 term and answer questions from the press on related contents.

At the press conference, the representative of the Congress Propaganda Subcommittee said: The Congress has consulted and elected the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front for the 8th term, consisting of 383 people (an increase of 30 people, nearly 9% compared to the 7th term). The goal of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (term 2014 - 2019) is: Focus on strongly innovating the content and methods of operation to promote the strength of great national unity, well perform the representative function, protect the legitimate and legal rights and interests of the people, strengthen social consensus, promote democracy, conduct social supervision and criticism, actively participate in building a strong Party and government, contribute to sustainable socio-economic development, accelerate industrialization and modernization, build new rural areas, civilized urban areas, maintain peace, firmly protect national sovereignty, for a Vietnam with rich people, strong country, democracy, fairness and civilization.

Answering the question of VNA reporter about the responsibilities and priorities of the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in the next term, Chairman Nguyen Thien Nhan said: The speech of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the Congress emphasized that the Front at all levels must truly be the center of solidarity, gathering all social forces, a place where everyone can speak up their voices and aspirations, contribute their intelligence and efforts to the cause of building and defending the Fatherland. The Vietnam Fatherland Front considers this a task in the coming time. Immediately after the Congress, the Fatherland Front will, together with the Standing Committee members, on the basis of agreement with the Presidium, organize the implementation of the Congress Resolution, concretizing it into the Front's action program in 2015.

Regarding the work of supervision and social criticism, Chairman Nguyen Thien Nhan said that this is both a new task assigned by the Constitution and also something that the Vietnam Fatherland Front has been actively trying to do over the past year. However, the practical results have not been much. The Vietnam Fatherland Front is focusing on four supervision programs. The immediate program is a general review of policies for people with meritorious services in 2014 - 2015, and three programs will be carried out after the Congress: the implementation of laws on production and trading of agricultural materials; the implementation of laws on social insurance in enterprises and the compliance with laws and policies of private medical facilities. In addition, the Front also continues to unite and gather people to implement the policies and guidelines of the Party and State, participate in building, supervising and protecting the Party and State, and participate in social management, contributing to strengthening the close connection between the people and the Party and State.

Discussing further on this content, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Nguyen Van Pha said: The function of social supervision and criticism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front has been recorded in the documents of the 10th and 11th National Party Congresses and the Platform for national construction in the transitional period to socialism (supplemented and developed in 2011) and has been especially institutionalized in Article 9 of the 2013 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. On December 12, 2013, the Politburo issued regulations on social supervision and criticism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations. The Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front has proactively implemented the regulations in the Party's documents as well as in the Constitution with 5 contents of supervision and criticism. For each monitoring program, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front will coordinate with a member organization and with the participation of State agencies so that the monitoring and criticism content is clear, convincing, and in accordance with the law; meeting the expectations of the people. This year, the Front will conduct a pilot monitoring program, and in 2015, it will be implemented on a large scale with the motto of learning from experience while doing it to bring about practical results and avoid formalities.

In response to the press's concerns about the reduction in the number of full-time Vice President positions while the workload is increasing, the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front affirmed that this is a difficulty in the process of implementing tasks. However, with the common responsibility, the Standing Committee will have a plan to assign specific tasks to each person and in the process of implementing the tasks, the staff apparatus that assists the leaders of the departments and units in the Front agencies and member organizations will help the Standing Committee complete the tasks assigned by the Congress.

At the press conference, the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front also answered many questions about the role of the Front in gathering great national unity when national sovereignty is at risk of being violated; promoting the strength of the Vietnamese community abroad; the issue of creating a legal corridor for Front officials to promote their roles and activities...

According to VNA