Intensive corruption fight supports socio-economic development

Recent years has seen the Party discipline and prosecute thousands of party members, including those in the Politburo and Party Central Committee ranks, for their violations of party rules, including corrupt offences. The anti-corruption campaign, which is considered to be a protracted and tough fight, has raised public concerns regarding its influence, with many asking if it will obstruct the country’s socio-economic development.

At the recent 26th meeting of the Central Committee for Prevention and Control of Corruption and Negativity in Hanoi, Party General Secretary and President To Lam once again reaffirmed the Party’s strong resolve to constantly persist in the fight with the spirit of “no off-limits zones” and “no exceptions” in order to root out corruption and build a strong, clean, and united Party. In addition, the Party leader, who is also head of the committee, stressed that accelerating the fight is being done to support socio-economic development, not to stifle it.

Indeed, the intensive fight against corruption has had a psychological influence on ranking officials, with some either passing the buck or being inactive. Several ministries, agencies, and localities have not really been proactive enough in fulfilling their tasks and in accompanying businesses to iron out any snags.

The weaknesses and shortcomings should be drastically addressed by perfecting institutions and laws, stepping up reform, removing bottlenecks, and unlocking resources towards achieving goals set for 2024 and beyond. As a case in point, the Prime Minister gets tough on the negative phenomena among ranking officials and civil servants by firing those who are either incompetent or who cause trouble to businesses and people.

Those shortcomings do not mean the fight against corruption is obstructing the country’s development and creating “paralysis” and “stagnation”, as some ill-intentioned organisations and individuals have recently claimed in an attempt to discourage investors.

In fact, Vietnam is simultaneously carrying out the dual tasks of socio-economic development and Party building that go in line with the Party’s motto of “economic development is a must, Party building is the key”.

Statistics unveiled by the Ministry of Planning and Investment highlight that the national economy is gathering full steam on both monthly and quarterly bases. The second quarter of the year witnessed the local economy expand by 6.42%, a figure that outnumbered the Government’s 6% growth scenario, as well as international financial institutions’ projections. With better-than-expected results in the first half of the year, HSBC raised this year’s GDP growth forecast for Vietnam to 6.5%, instead of the previous figure of 6%.

It’s worth remembering that the remarkable results were recorded amidst a complex and unpredictable global situation, with many new developments arising out of projection.

However, all socio-economic development achievements can only be sustainable when the country has a truly honest apparatus. To do so, the Party building and rectification campaign must be carried out regularly and continuously. The Party has reprimanded many ranking officials for their violations of party rules, with thousands of billions of VND worth of asset recovery being returned to State coffers. But the most important thing is perfecting institutions and laws to ensure that someone does not dare to get involved in corrupt offences.

Since the beginning of the year, many Party regulations and State laws have been amended, supplemented, and promulgated, directly supporting the prevention of corruption and negativity. Among them, the Politburo and the Party’s Secretariat have issued more than 30 important documents, while the National Assembly has passed 13 bills and three resolutions, and it is considering approving 10 other bills with provisions relating to anti-corruption. The Government and the Prime Minister have issued 98 decrees, while ministries and agencies have released more than 300 circulars.

The National Assembly and the Government have directed the review and overcoming of loopholes, inadequacies, contradictions, overlaps, and problems in many legal documents on socio-economic management and anti-corruption in an effort to formulate a synchronous, strict, unified, and feasible legal system in support of the corruption fight.

The handling of corrupt officials may create some local changes in a certain period of time, but no doubt the move is deemed as necessary to strengthen people’s trust in the Party’s leadership and to further consolidate socio-political stability.