In his closing remarks, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said the committee acknowledged the serious impact of the fourth COVID-19 resurgence. The national economy shrank by 6.17 percent in the third quarter of this year, pushing the nine-month growth down to 1.42 percent, the lowest for the period since 2000.

The growth for this year is therefore estimated at only 3 percent, a far cry from the target of 6 percent set by the National Assembly. It is forecast that many main targets of this year would not be met.

Given the unpredictable developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Party leader emphasised the need to change the mindset and strengthen awareness of pandemic prevention and control in connection with recovering and boosting business and production activities. He said appropriate plans and scenarios should be built and integrated into socio-economic development, finance-budget and public investment plans for 2022.

He ordered strengthening the leadership, management and instruction in the implementation of socio-economic solutions, with a focus on supplementing and completing institutions, and removing obstacles to investment, production and business.

Along with restructuring a number of major sectors and enterprises in trade, services, aviation and tourism that have been affected by COVID-19, there should be solutions to protect businesses in key industries and prevent the bankruptcy of big groups, thus helping the national economy keep pace with the world economy’s recovery trend, as well as the restructuring of the global production and supply chain, Trong said.

The Party Central Committee basically approved the overall targets along with major tasks and solutions for 2022 as proposed by the Government’s Party delegation, including moving back the time to implement salary reforms under the resolution adopted at the seventh plenum of the 12th Party Central Committee.

The committee requested further reviewing and adjusting targets, tasks and solutions to submit them to the National Assembly for consideration, so as to ensure socio-economic development in 2022 and the years to come.

Regarding Party building and rectification work, the Party chief noted a new point of this working session, which is to extend the scale of the work to the entire political system, with an emphasis on proactive prevention and strict handling of the degradation in political thought, morality, lifestyle as well as other negative phenomena.

The plenum reached consensus in issuing new regulations on things that Party members are not allowed to do, which will serve as an important basis to handle violations by officials and Party members.

The Party leader said Party Central Committee lauded the tremendous efforts and contributions as well as good deeds of people, soldiers and businesses in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and thanked overseas Vietnamese and international friends for their support.

Last working day of Party Central Committee’s fourth session

The Party Central Committee sat for the fourth and last working day of their fourth session on October 7.

Politburo member and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered a report on the Politburo's consideration and explanation of the Party Central Committee’s opinions regarding the reports on the implementation of the socio-economic development plan in 2021 and a draft plan for 2022; the assessments of the State budget in 2021 and estimate for 2022; the finance-budget plan in the 2022-24 period; the delay of salary reform; and outcomes of COVID-19 prevention and control activities so far as well as solutions and tasks in the time to come.

Meanwhile, Vo Van Thuong, Politburo member and standing member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat delivered a Politburo’s report summarising and clarifying opinions of the Party Central Committee on a report on the five-year implementation of Resolution No. 04-NQ/TW on strengthening Party building and rectification, preventing and driving back the degradation in political ideology, morality and lifestyle as well as signs of "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" among Party members, and the rules on deeds Party members are banned from doing.

After discussing the Politburo's reports, the Party Central Committee adopted a resolution of their fourth session, followed by the closing remarks of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong./.

Source: VNA