Vietnam Communist Party leaders have taken a major step towards amplifying the battle against corruption.

At the 5th plenary session of the 11th Party Congress’ Central Committee, which wrapped up last week, the leaders advocated the establishment of a Party General Secretary-led central steering committee for fighting against corruption

“This decision has once again demonstrated the Central Committee’s determination in pushing up the fight against corruption to gain bigger results,” said Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

He said anti-corruption and wastefulness prevention moves had brought positive achievements in reforming public asset management and administrative procedures.

“However, the fight against corruption has not satisfied the requirement of preventing and gradually pushing back corruption,” Trong said.

“The Central Committee stresses that we must be patient and push up the anti-corruption battle,” he said.

Trong said corruption and wastefulness challenged the Party’s leadership and state management.

He said land, natural minerals, public investment, capital construction, and management of state-owned enterprises’ capital and assets were especially vulnerable to fraud.

However, Trong said the central steering committee for fighting against corruption was only one of many measures that helped the Central Committee and the Politburo to “instruct” authorised agencies’ anti-corruption activities.

He noted the establishment of the committee did not mean corruption would be eradicated overnight since this fight was very difficult and complicated.

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently issued a report on corruption which showed 69 per cent of surveyed enterprises said they had been “victims” of corruption. The report noted that 80 per cent of surveyed enterprises said the most common corruption was bribery.

Eighty per cent of respondents said corruption had negatively impacted on their business, while 40 per cent claimed they could only have access to land and production sites if they had special relationship with authorities.

At the 10th Anti-Corruption Dialogue in Hanoi last year, British ambassador to Vietnam Antony Stokes said: “Corruption remains systemic. It threatens the country’s growth and stability as well as its reputation and it hurts the poor and the vulnerable.”

The Party’s Central Committee members, at the session, also called for quick amendments to the Land Law and other relevant legal documents to minimise corruption.

Besides, the Central Committee also discussed salary and insurance policies and required improvements in 2012 and 2013. Under the committee’s guidelines, the state would prioritise the adjustment of salaries for state officials, public employees and army forces, and soon devise a project on salary reform for 2013-2020.

VIR