This is a very important event aimed at implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress on comprehensive human development and building an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with a strong sense of national identity that will become an endogenous strength and driving force for national development and defence.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung talked with VietNamNet about the upcoming event.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung.

- What does it mean to organize the National Cultural Conference in the current context?

2021 is the year with many important political events of our country. This is the first year that Vietnam is implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, concretizing the country’s 10-year social-economic development strategy as determined by the Party Resolution.

The 13th National Party Congress plans the country’s development path to 2030 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Party's founding, and to 2045 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the country’s formation and sets the goal that by that time our country must be a developed industrialized country.

In addition to being the first year of implementing the Party's Resolution, we also see how the situation in the country and the world is with advantages and challenges. Our country has had to face a widespread Covid-19 pandemic, especially the 4th outbreak since April 2021, which has caused great damage in general and to the culture, sports and tourism sector in particular. Thanks to the leadership of the Party and the unanimity of the people, we have gradually controlled the epidemic to bring the country into a new normal state of safe adaptation to flexibly and effectively control the pandemic.

The implementation of the Party’s Resolution must be associated with important events of the country, such as the 75th anniversary of the National Cultural Festival. Accordingly, we organize the National Cultural Conference, with the most important goal of implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress on culture. This is also one of the tasks of all Party organizations under the leadership of the Politburo and the Secretariat. Therefore, this conference has an historical nature.

- What goals will the conference discuss?

The key of this event is that we will quote and systematize the views of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh’s thought on culture. Besides systematizing and interpreting President Ho's ideological views on culture based on our Party's line and especially the spirit of Marxism-Leninism on culture, Ho Chi Minh's thought has been approved by the Party as the guideline.

We will review over 35 years under the Party's renovation in the cultural field to see what achievements we have made, as well as difficulties and weaknesses to draw out lessons. When we have a right perception, we will do things right.

From a systematic perception of the Party's viewpoints and lines, looking back at the Party's 35 years of reform implementation, from a cultural perspective, the requirement is to determine the direction and the mission of the near future, which must be based on a cross-cutting axis of developing Vietnamese culture and people, arousing the aspiration to build a country of advanced and strong culture. That is the requirement as well as the content of the conference.

- What is the cultural strategy in the coming years of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism?

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stipulates the socio-economic development strategy on the basis of the Party's awareness and views on culture and the inheritance of the achieved results. We have no ambition to go beyond but just try to find and solve difficult problems to put the strategy into operation.

The first is to raise awareness to the fullest extent of the Party's views to build and develop culture.

The second is state management over the field of culture by perfecting institutions, policies and tools.

We will have to check all normative documents that show the views and lines of the Party to supplement and perfect the contents. We have to detect the bottlenecks to develop regulations, and more broadly, laws, decrees, circulars... Law-making is not only done to create management tools but also is a driving force for development.

The third is to build a cultural environment to create a driving force for the country's development, but with an emphasis.

The fourth is to improve the quality and effective operation of culture. We must embellish, preserve and promote the nation's own identity, of the community of 54 ethnic groups, which are diverse but within a unified whole. It is also a must to improve the quality of major art troupes and major national art centers. Broadly speaking, there are forms of academic arts that must be popularized but popular culture must be also paid attention to in order to enrich culture and artistic activities.

The next task is to preserve and develop the cultural heritage of Vietnam, including national treasures created by nature, the material culture, the intangible culture, the culture of each region with their own characteristics.

We have to integrate into the world and further promote the image of the country and people of Vietnam to the world. So far we have organized Vietnam culture week, and Vietnam culture day overseas. We would like to emphasize more the overseas Vietnamese who through them, Vietnamese culture will be promoted. At the same time, we need to absorb and select the quintessential human values. The Party's position is very clear that it is to have creative people with good skills for international integration but not to be dissolved.

Another point is to create human resources. In order to develop culture, there must be a team, including cultural managers, cultural experts, writers and artists... We need to make efforts to build and improve the quality of training, focus on good work practice, particularly the improvement of the qualification of lecturers.

- What can we expect from this conference?

It is hoped that after the Conference, we will have deeper and more comprehensive awareness of the Party's viewpoints to preserve and develop Vietnam’s culture in line with the Party's guides and views, and fully promote its connotations, building the culture we are aiming for. It is an advanced culture imbued with national identity, absorbing the cultural quintessence of humanity.

We need to be proactive to overcome the impact of foreign culture and negative influence in the cultural evolution. After the Conference, we must establish and build a cultural ecosystem, a cultural environment. We need to choose priorities, including corporate culture.

When we build a socialist-oriented market economy, we consider enterprises as the heart of the economy. So how to build this environment to ensure culture in economy and the economy in culture? Culture must start from the grassroots, we must promote and preserve it. We have to build culture from residential areas and urban areas so that it becomes a cultural environment where we live.

After the conference, we will implement the values of the Vietnamese people set out by the Party's resolution, which are patriotic, righteous, creative and with aspirations to build the country. Culture forms the noble qualities of Vietnamese people, the people of the integration era, the people who can keep their cultural identities. Those are the things we expect from this conference.

Noted by Tinh Le

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