General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong: The country is changing to welcome new opportunities

“Although there are still many difficulties and challenges ahead, the results achieved over the past year are encouraging, creating favorable momentum for the country to enter a new development stage, with new opportunities and fortunes.”

That was the sharing of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in an interview on the occasion of Spring Dinh Dau 2017.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. (Photo: Tri Dung/VNA)

- 2016 has passed with many difficulties, challenges and events. Could you please tell us about the highlights in the overall picture of the country last year?

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong: In 2016, the world and domestic situation, in addition to basic advantages, also faced many difficulties and challenges. Unprecedented natural disasters such as storms, floods, droughts, saltwater intrusion, and serious marine pollution incidents in 4 central provinces... have severely affected the country's socio-economic development, production and people's lives.

In that context, with the consensus, solidarity and high determination of the entire Party, people and army, we have successfully organized many important events of the country, notably the 12th National Party Congress and the election of deputies to the 14th National Assembly and People's Councils at all levels for the 2016-2021 term.

The 12th National Congress of the Party has a very important mission: to look back on 30 years of innovation, summarize the term of the 11th Congress and set out the direction for the country's development in the new period.

At this Congress, our Party affirmed its determination to comprehensively and synchronously promote the innovation process; strive to soon turn our country into a basically modern industrialized one; persistently and resolutely defend the Fatherland; and proactively and actively integrate internationally.

The 12th National Party Congress was a great success, creating new momentum and enthusiasm for the cause of innovation, national construction and defense.

Immediately after the Congress, preparations and conduct of the election of deputies to the 14th National Assembly and People's Councils at all levels for the 2016-2021 term were carried out urgently, ensuring publicity, democracy and compliance with the law.

More than 99% of the total number of voters went to the polls, expressing their will, aspirations and responsibilities for the future and destiny of the country and people, choosing excellent representatives with enough virtue and talent to be elected to the highest state power agencies at the central and local levels.

Next, we quickly completed the organization and personnel of the state apparatus, maintained stability and promptly began implementing the set goals and tasks.

Under the close and comprehensive leadership and direction of the Central Executive Committee and the Politburo, the entire political system has joined in, initially creating positive changes in all areas of social life.

The content and spirit of the Resolution of the 12th Party Congress have been concretized into resolutions, directives, programs and action plans, with drastic and synchronous solutions.

The National Assembly, the Government, all levels and sectors are making efforts to innovate in management methods and improve operational efficiency, which is welcomed by voters and people.

Thanks to that, last year, despite the very difficult situation, the gross domestic product (GDP) still grew quite well (6.21%), the macro economy continued to be stable, inflation was controlled, major balances of the economy were basically guaranteed, and foreign exchange reserves reached the highest level ever.

The private economic sector has made progress, attracting a sharp increase in foreign direct investment.

Total social development investment exceeded the set plan. The tourism industry achieved a record of welcoming 10 million international visitors and serving 62 million domestic visitors...

There has been much progress in culture and society. The poverty rate has decreased. The material and spiritual life of the people has continued to improve. The work of law-making, institutional improvement, and administrative reform has been focused on. National defense and security have been strengthened, and national sovereignty has been maintained.

Foreign affairs and international integration continue to be strongly and comprehensively implemented, thereby deepening foreign relations, bringing about practical results, enhancing Vietnam's role and position in the region and in the international arena, contributing to maintaining a peaceful, stable and favorable environment for national construction and defense.

The work of Party building and rectification, and the fight against corruption, waste, and negativity continues to be strengthened.

Many particularly serious corruption and economic cases have been brought to trial; many violations in personnel work, many high-ranking officials in the state apparatus have been handled and disciplined... with the sympathy and support of a large number of officials, party members and people.

Right in the first year of the term, the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress was implemented methodically and steadily, creating positive changes in reality.

Although there are still many difficulties and challenges ahead, the results achieved in the past year are encouraging, creating favorable momentum for the country to enter a new development stage, with new opportunities and fortunes.

- Mr. General Secretary, "innovating the growth model" and "improving the quality of growth" have been realized in many policies and guidelines of our Party and State. Why are these ideas still emphasized in the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress and recently the adoption of Resolution No. 05-NQ/TW at the 4th Conference of the 12th Party Central Committee?

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong: Over the past time, our Party and State have implemented many policies and strategies to innovate the growth model associated with economic restructuring, improve quality, and bring the country's economy to develop rapidly and sustainably.

However, the growth model is still fundamentally slow to be renewed; economic growth rate tends to slow down, growth quality is low, the goal of fast and sustainable growth has not been achieved as desired, the requirements set out...

Therefore, at the 12th Congress, our Party identified one of the six key tasks of the entire term as: "Focusing on implementing solutions to improve growth quality, labor productivity and competitiveness of the economy. Continuing to effectively implement three strategic breakthroughs, comprehensively and synchronously restructuring the economy associated with innovation of the growth model..."

And at the 4th Conference of the 12th Party Central Committee, those viewpoints and orientations were clearly specified in Resolution No. 05-NQ/TW, with 8 major guidelines and policies that need to be focused on in order to continue to innovate the growth model, improve growth quality, labor productivity and competitiveness of the economy.

First of all, it is necessary to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of macroeconomic management; continue to implement three strategic breakthroughs; prioritize the development and transfer of science and technology, considering this a key factor to improve productivity, quality and competitiveness of the economy; promote the overall restructuring of economic sectors and fields nationwide and in each locality and enterprise, closely linking the overall restructuring of the economy with the restructuring of sectors and fields, focusing on restructuring state-owned enterprises, financial markets, investment, public service sectors, agriculture, industry and services.

This resolution also emphasizes the development of the private economic sector in both quantity and quality, considering it a truly important driving force in economic development...

It is necessary to clearly understand that the goal of growth model innovation is to improve growth quality, develop rapidly and sustainably, comprehensively in terms of economy, society and environment; not to promote growth at all costs, not to trade the environment for projects.

Formosa is a valuable lesson. From this incident, we can draw profound lessons in attracting investment. We must be selective, prioritizing investment projects with high technology, high quality and high efficiency, and pay more attention to environmental protection.

Along with promoting growth, it is necessary to take care of improving people's lives, achieving social progress and equity, ensuring that all people benefit from growth. Improving the quality of growth also means improving people's quality of life.

When visiting and working in localities, I often note that innovation in the growth model associated with economic restructuring must be based on the potential and advantages of each locality; how to unlock and thereby effectively use resources, including material and spiritual resources, internal and external resources.

Mountainous localities with potential strengths in agriculture and forestry need to take care of developing agriculture and forestry towards high level and high quality, associated with new rural construction, modernizing infrastructure, attracting investment in agriculture, strongly developing processing industry, focusing on building brands, finding outputs for products, thereby increasing added value for products, increasing income for people...

Coastal localities need to focus on strongly developing the marine economy, tourism, seaport services... associated with maintaining national defense and security, protecting sea and island sovereignty, while at the same time properly solving social issues and preserving national cultural identity.

For revolutionary rural areas and old resistance bases, it is necessary to know how to arouse and promote the tradition of revolutionary patriotism as a spiritual potential, an important driving force to promote socio-economic development...

In the industrial sector, it is necessary to focus on fundamental industries with competitive advantages, increase technology content and domestic value proportion in products; at the same time, promote a number of products to participate in production networks and value chains, global distribution...

In the process of development, each locality needs to continue to improve the investment and business environment, create favorable conditions, encourage start-up and development enterprises; invest with focus and key points, avoid spreading.

In addition, it is necessary to further promote regional linkages to both promote the potential and advantages of each locality and improve investment efficiency, promoting rapid and sustainable growth of the entire region and the country.

- Mr. General Secretary, it can be seen that the situation of corruption, negativity and waste still seems to be very painful; Party building and rectification is not only an internal issue of the Party but has become a major concern of the entire people. Could you please give your opinion on this issue, what are the most fundamental factors to continue to do better in Party building and rectification, and improve the effectiveness of preventing and fighting corruption?

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong:Throughout the sessions, our Party has had many specialized resolutions on Party building and rectification, considering this a key, fundamental, long-term task.

Each resolution issued has its own focus, but there is one consistent point: all sectors, levels, cadres, party members and people see the need to regularly, continuously, and take good care of implementing the work of Party building and rectification.

Previously, when talking about the danger to the survival of the Party and the regime, people often talked about the peaceful evolution plot of hostile forces; the Central Resolution 4 (11th tenure) was the state of degradation in political ideology and lifestyle ethics; and the Central Resolution 4 (12th tenure) frankly pointed out and deeply analyzed the state of "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" within the Party.

The new thing in the 4th Central Resolution (12th tenure) is to identify what is political and ideological degradation, what is self-evolution, self-transformation, emphasizing its dangerous nature and unpredictable consequences, while affirming the determination to prevent and repel it with 4 groups of synchronous solutions, combining "building" and "fighting", in which "building" is the fundamental, long-term task, "fighting" is the important, urgent task.

The goal is to overcome weaknesses in personnel work and personnel management. If Party building work is the key, then personnel work is the key of all keys, the cause of all causes.

Cadres are always the root of all problems, success or failure depends on cadres. No matter how good the strategy is, how correct the policy is, if cadres do not meet the requirements, or even make mistakes, it cannot be implemented...

This 4th Central Resolution, in addition to the group of political and ideological solutions, has more fully mentioned the group of solutions on mechanisms and policies, promoting discipline, order, and the rule of law; emphasizing the strict implementation of the mechanism to control the exercise of power by those in positions of authority, clearly defining authority and responsibility, strictly handling violations that cause outrage in public opinion, not allowing arbitrary, arbitrary, and authoritarian behavior.

At the same time, it is necessary to implement publicity and transparency in management and operation, eliminate the "ask-grant" and "approve-grant" mechanisms, contributing to preventing and repelling corruption, negativity, group interests, "backyards," and profiteering...

Recently, a series of regulations from the Central and the Government have been welcomed, such as preventing age-based corruption, job rotation, and banning drinking, gifts, and bribery...

The recent Central Resolution 4 received very high consensus and great determination. Now the important thing is to turn determination into action, words must go hand in hand with deeds.

The good news is that after the directive, it seems that the whole apparatus and system have joined in, Party committees and organizations at all levels, the National Assembly, the Government, all levels and sectors have promoted their responsibilities, participated in implementation with the highest spirit, contributing to the common struggle.

A large number of cadres, party members and people agree and support and expect this Resolution to be thoroughly implemented, creating clear changes in reality.

Party building and rectification is an extremely difficult and complicated task, but it is indispensable.

The problem is how to make the Party organization and the State apparatus clean and strong, while at the same time developing the economy, stabilizing society, and constantly developing the country.

First of all, there must be a prosperous life for people to feel secure and confident, and only when the country is peaceful can it develop.

Therefore, it is necessary to calculate comprehensively and holistically with the dialectical method. The key task of Party building must be carried out simultaneously with economic development, which is the central task.

Resolution No. 4 of the Central Committee (12th tenure) on Party building must be implemented simultaneously with other Resolutions of the Central Committee, the National Assembly, and the Government, creating synchronous and comprehensive changes in all fields.

A new spring is coming, bringing with it new vitality and new faith. To seize opportunities and overcome challenges, our entire Party, people and army need to strengthen solidarity, join hands and promote patriotism, bravery, intelligence and Vietnamese cultural traditions, strive to continue to put the Resolution of the 12th Party Congress into practice, and be determined to build our Party to be increasingly clean and strong; our country to be increasingly developed and prosperous; our people to be increasingly prosperous and happy.

Thank you very much, General Secretary!

According to Vietnamplus