General Secretary chairs meeting of Standing Committee of Document Subcommittee of 13th National Party Congress

Grasp and handle well the relationship between perseverance and innovation and creativity

According to the full-term program of the 12th Central Executive Committee, the 13th National Party Congress is scheduled to be held in the first quarter of 2021. In preparation for the 13th Congress, the 8th Central Conference of the 12th tenure decided to establish 5 Subcommittees, including the Documents Subcommittee. The Documents Subcommittee is responsible for preparing a report on 10 years of implementing the Platform for national construction during the transition period to socialism (supplemented and developed in 2011); a political report to be submitted to the 13th National Party Congress. To assist the Documents Subcommittee, the Secretariat decided to establish a Documents Editorial Team.

At the meeting, Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, Head of the Editorial Team Nguyen Xuan Thang presented a report on the work implemented by the Editorial Team; the expected action plan of the Document Subcommittee and the Standing Committee of the Document Subcommittee.

Concluding the meeting, General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong welcomed and highly appreciated the Editorial Board for its proactive, urgent, and serious implementation of activities, and for holding the first meeting of the Editorial Board at the end of November to develop the Working Regulations and the Editorial Board's Operation Plan; establish working groups and an administrative office to assist; and assign tasks within the Editorial Board. Through discussion, the general opinion of the Standing Committee of the Subcommittee basically agreed with the content of the Regulations, the Operation Plan, and the assignment of tasks of the Editorial Board.

Regarding the summary of 10 years of implementing the Platform (supplemented and developed in 2011), the General Secretary and President stated that the general opinion of the Standing Committee of the Subcommittee affirmed the necessity of summarizing 10 years of implementing the Platform (supplemented and developed in 2011), and at the same time looking back at 30 years of implementing the Platform for national construction during the transition period to socialism (1991 Platform).

Reviewing the context and milestones "to issue the 1991 Platform is extremely important" as well as the great achievements the country has achieved over the past 30 years, the General Secretary and President stated that summarizing 10 years of implementing the Platform (supplemented and developed in 2011) and looking back at 30 years of implementing the 1991 Platform aims to have a scientific basis, a certain length of time to summarize and have a vision for the next stage on the basis of the existing Platform.

The summary of the Platform (supplemented and developed in 2011) and the review of 30 years of implementing the 1991 Platform aim to affirm the correctness of the Doi Moi process, the 1991 Platform, and the Party's guidelines, while correcting distorted perceptions, criticizing and rejecting views that are contrary to the Platform, creating a very high level of unity within the Party. "Summarizing to stay on the path", the General Secretary and President emphasized.

Emphasizing the special significance and importance of the upcoming 13th National Congress, the General Secretary and President affirmed that the preparation of documents for the Congress must be carried out in a scientific and serious manner, ensuring quality and fully reflecting the new realities of the country, especially the Political Report, which is the central report and is of utmost importance to ensure the success of the Congress.

To ensure the quality of work, the General Secretary and President requested that the members of the Subcommittee, the Standing Committee of the Subcommittee, especially the members of the Editorial Board and the Standing Committee of the Editorial Board, thoroughly grasp and reach a high consensus on a number of issues regarding principles, ideological methods and working methods.

Accordingly, it is necessary to grasp and handle well the relationship between steadfastness and innovation, and apply creativity. The General Secretary and President pointed out that if we are only steadfast mechanically, it will easily lead to dogmatism, rigidity, and conservatism, but if we are not steadfast, but keep talking about "innovation, innovation in a rush", we will "jump to" revisionism, lack of principles, and deviation. Therefore, steadfastness must be creative, and creativity must be based on steadfastness, and the relationship between steadfastness and innovation and creativity must be handled well.

Emphasizing that over the past 30 years, our Party has well handled the relationship between steadfastness and innovation, creatively applying, specifically steadfastness and creative application of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought, the General Secretary and President affirmed that this is a great and very successful lesson of the Vietnamese revolution, the steadfastness of our Party.

The final product must be of the best quality to be presented to the 13th Congress.

The General Secretary and President also pointed out that another motto and ideological method that needs to be thoroughly understood and highly unified is the relationship between inheritance and development. Specifically, what achievements of the past 5 years should be inherited, and what should be further developed in the next 5 years. "Standing still means being conservative, falling behind, but if we move forward without inheriting the old, losing the roots, it will lead to deviation," the General Secretary and President frankly said.

The General Secretary and President also noted the need to handle and combine the relationship between theory and practice. As Uncle Ho once said, practice without theory is blind practice, theory without practice is empty theory. Accordingly, “The Political Report presented to the 13th National Party Congress and the Report on 10 years of implementing the Platform (supplemented and developed in 2011) must be “products of very fluent theory and practice. Theory must not be written in a bookish, dry, dogmatic way, but it must be integrated into the Party's policies, guidelines, and viewpoints”.

In particular, we must try to answer the question: What will be inherited, what will be developed, and what is new this time? New but still on a steadfast basis. “These ideas must be thoroughly understood in all documents,” the General Secretary and President noted.

Regarding the methods and ways of working to ensure efficiency and achieve the set goals and requirements, the General Secretary and President noted that this is a large, difficult, complicated, and important task, a collective intellectual product and project, so there must be an appropriate way of doing it, promoting maximum democracy, attracting and crystallizing collective intelligence, creating high unity. "The final product must be a product of the best quality to present to the 13th National Congress," said the General Secretary and President.

Emphasizing the role of the Subcommittee members, the Subcommittee Standing Committee, the Editorial Board and the Editorial Board Standing Committee, the General Secretary and President requested each member to devote adequate time and effort, and have a scientific and rigorous working method to complete the work with high quality and on schedule.