Talking to the media on the sidelines of a recent workshop on new content and highlights of the draft documents submitted to the 13th National Party Congress, Prof. Dr. Phung Huu Phu, Standing Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council, said that the 13th National Party Congress documents come from the current context, with many changes that Vietnam should try to approach.

Phu said that Vietnam has accumulated experiences and lessons after 35 years of renovation, has accessed the world's development trends and modern thinking and experiences from the success of other nations.

"The new features in the draft documents of the 13th National Party Congress are not in the words, but the approach and the scope," Phu stressed.

High income doesn’t mean happiness

Prof. Dr. Phung Huu Phu, Standing Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council

Could you make clear the new points of the draft documents of the 13th National Party Congress?

The documents not only evaluate the 5 years of implementation of the 12th Party Congress's resolutions, but also 10 years of implementation of the National Construction Platform during the transition period to Socialism 2011 and 30 years of implementation of the 1991 Platform.

The target is not only for the next 5 years or 10 years but also provides a vision to 2045 associated with the two important milestones: the 100th anniversary of establishment of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 2030 and the country’s 100th anniversary.

As such, the coverage is much broader. The documents have many new ideological points and a system of guidance viewpoint that was not previously available.

Another new point is in the definition of the goals: the draft documents this time inherit both the traditional approach and the common standards of the world. In addition, the fields of economy, defense, security, foreign affairs, party and the political system building all have many new points in determining strategic breakthroughs.

What does it mean to set the vision up to 2045?

The draft documents said that by the year 2045, the country’s 100th anniversary, Vietnam will strive to become a developed country with high income.

That is a big goal, but if we carry out strategic breakthroughs well and strongly promote the aspiration of the whole nation for a "prosperous and happy Vietnam" and grasp the spirit of innovation, arouse the cultural strength, the strength and values of Vietnamese people, especially when we take advantage of the achievements of the fourth industrial revolution, that goal is possible.

The new point of the last draft documents in comparison with the first draft is the change in determining "national development aspirations". Can you tell more clearly why this change has occurred?

There is an emphasis on the issue of "national development aspirations" in the latest draft documents. The desire for national development is a very new factor, a factor showing the domestic strength and exploration of our nation. How is aspiration for development? At first many people think it is the aspiration for "building a mighty Vietnam". This is also true.

After the recent Covid-19 pandemic, we understand more clearly: "Not high income nor rapid growth mean happiness. The most important thing is a peaceful and happy life."

But after a comprehensive consideration, most recently, the Document Sub-Committee reported to the Politburo to add the "aspiration for developing the country of prosperity and happiness" into the draft documents. Especially, the documents emphasize on the "happiness" factor of the people.

Therefore, the element of "happiness" is a highlight in this draft, where human nature and humanity are shown boldly.

What is the difference between the breakthroughs identified in the current draft documents and the previous one?

The final part of the draft political report highlights three strategic breakthroughs: institutions, human resources, and infrastructure. These are three long-term strategic breakthroughs, but the important thing is how to define groundbreaking content in each specific stage.

In the 13th term, we focus on institutions, namely how to have an institution to attract and use the best resources; to be able to solve the problem of decentralization well, but at the same time to strictly control power; how can we create a mechanism to create a really clean and healthy business environment.

Regarding human resources, the draft report emphasizes on high-quality human resources and gives priority to leaders and managers in key areas. High-quality human resources are associated with improving the quality of education and training, promoting science and technology application, transferring and building, developing culture, promoting cultural values and strength of the Vietnamese people.

As for infrastructure breakthrough, a number of key national projects on transport to respond to climate change and prioritize digital infrastructure development to carry out a digital transformation are the emphasis, step by step building the digital economy and the digital society. These are new ones that were not previously available.

The latest draft documents also mention "beneficial people". Could you please analyze this more clearly?

In every congress we place the people as the subject and especially respect the people. For the 13th Party Congress, due to the very high development requirements of the country and in the context of many favorable and challenging opportunities, the role of the people is greater.

Therefore, we continue to develop the thinking about the people that we previously called the democratic mechanism, under which the people know, the people discuss, the people do, the people check. But this time the people will "supervise and benefit". That is the rule, if you work, you will benefit. If you work but you don’t benefit, no one will work.

The motivation is the benefit. Benefits must be in harmony with the interests of the people, enterprises and the State. Now we have to perfect this.

Is there any difference between listening to and absorbing opinions within the Party as well as from society to add to the draft documents of this Congress compared to the previous Congresses?

Basically, the previous process is still implemented, but it is expanded in terms of area and channels. Recently, the Party Central Committee sent a summary report on the draft documents for comments at the grassroots congress and sent the full text of the draft documents to the congress at higher levels.

At the same time, research institutions, especially the Central Theoretical Council have organized many seminars for experts to listen to opinions from many subjects. Many Party organizations, many individuals actively wrote comments to the Document Sub-Committee.

The draft documents will be finalized one more step in October and will be sent to the Party Committees of the National Assembly, the Fatherland Front, political organizations and the entire people for comment. On that basis the documents will be revised again before it is presented to the 13th Party Congress.

Thu Hang

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