12th National Party Congress for Vietnam’s solidarity, democracy and continued reform

The Congress is themed “Promoting the building of a spotless and strong Party, while putting into play the strength of the entire nation and socialist democracy, stepping up reform comprehensively and synchronously, firmly safeguarding the Fatherland and maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, and striving to turn Vietnam into a modernity-oriented industrialised country”.

The participants include 197 official and alternate members of the 11th Party Central Committee. Meanwhile, 1,300 delegates were elected at congresses of the centrally-run Party organisations, and 13 others were appointed.

Among them, 194 are women and 174 are ethnic minority people. Ten people hold the titles of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces or Hero of Labour, and 20 others own the titles of the People’s Teacher or Meritorious Teacher. Fifteen are bestowed with the People’s Doctor or Meritorious Doctor titles, while one is a Meritorious Artist title holder. 55 delegates are professors, associate professors or academicians, 241 have doctorate degrees, 511 hold master’s degrees, and 757 have bachelor’s degrees. Regarding political theory standard, 1,501 participants hold bachelor’s or higher-level political theory degrees.

Two of the delegates are under 30 years old, 65 are aged between 31 and 40, and 384 people between 41 and 50. The majority 992 participants are aged between 51 and 60, and 64 between 61 and 70.

In his opening speech, President Truong Tan Sang emphasised that the 12th National Party Congress took place in an important period of time for Vietnam as the Party and the people of Vietnam had completed goals set out in the 11th National Party Congress five years ago.

“The 12th National Party Congress is the congress of solidarity, democracy and reform,” Sang said.

Also in this morning session, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong presented to the Congress the 11th Party Central Committee’s report on the documents of the 12th National Party Congress.

Trong told the Congress the report’s six important tasks for the 12th Party Central Committee including: to strengthen the Party, particularly building up the core staff, to develop and purify the mechanism of the political system in an effective manner, to reinforce the fight against corruption and bureaucracy, to focus on the quality of economic growth, labour productivity and competitiveness, to affirm defense and national security and to promote all resources and creativeness of the people.

The new points of the draft documents highlight the promotion of the strength of Vietnamese people, with the themes of this congress aiming at promoting socialist democracy, firmly safeguarding the nation, and maintaining a peaceful and stable environment.

The draft documents also stress a determination to achieve the goal of turning Vietnam into a modern industrialised country, but leaving open the exact time for Vietnam to achieve this goal.

In terms of economy, the draft documents underlined the need to actively renew the growth model, strengthen institutions, develop a socialist-oriented market economy, and continue improving Party consciousness in the economy. According to the draft Socio-Economic Development Plan during 2016-2020, Vietnam will strive for an annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.5-7 per cent per annum and GDP per capita will reach $3,200-$3,500 by 2020.

In the fields of socio-culture and environment, the draft documents focus on issues related to the basic and comprehensive renovation of education and training, human resources development, science and technology application, cultural development, and social management, as well as the realisation of social progress, equality, and security.

The draft documents also affirm the importance of defence and national security and will examine new points and solutions in protecting the nation, building the people’s army and police forces, and synchronously implementing an independent and self-reliant foreign policy.

With regards to the building of the Party and the political system, the draft documents highlight the importance of “strongly promoting all resources and creativeness of people” and “respecting differences which do not go against the nation’s common interests”.

In this afternoon session, the Congress delegates will discuss the draft documents of the 12th National Party Congress.

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