Party Congress hears presentations on essential matters

Build the working class as a vanguard force

The President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL), Dang Ngoc Tung, began the session with his presentation on building a strong working class as a leading force in the process of industrialization and modernization.

In his speech, Tung affirmed the qualitative and quantitative strength of the Vietnamese working class as well the country’s trade unions in the past 20 years of renovation.

However, he pointed out that the Vietnamese workers are also facing enormous challenges, many of which have not been dealt with properly such as low incomes, poor housing, limited access to cultural services, poor knowledge, low self-discipline and shortage of industrial working styles.

Since 2006, the number of workers party members has never exceeded 10 percent of the total newly admitted members, Tung said, citing a popular fact that quite a few workers had violated labour law. He added that due attention has not been given to the training of workers.

In addition, Tung suggested the State quickly institutionalize the Party’s policies regarding urgent issues of workers so as to improve their living standards and spiritual lives.

Tung highlighted the need to effectively and gradually intellectualize workers with a view to improving productivity and business efficiency.

Eight tasks for the police force

General Le Hong Anh, Minister of Public Security, outlined eight specific tasks for the next five years in building the people’s police force under new circumstances.

Anh said the Central Public Security Party Committee agreed with the defence-security mission covered in the Political Report of the Party’s 10^th Central Committee: to defend the Fatherland’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, to protect the Party, State and people and the socialist regime, to maintain peace, national security, and social order, and to proactively foil sabotage plots and acts by forces hostile to the country’s revolutionary cause.

Challenges facing anti-corruption

One of the issues attracting much attention of the Party and people is the struggle against corruption. In his report about the problem, Vu Tien Chien, Chief Office of the National Anti-corruption Campaign Steering Committee (NACCSC), emphasised that with great efforts, Vietnam won great achievements in combating corruption. However, shortcomings still remain as corruption is still complex and serious in different fields and levels.

Chien said that for the next five years, the Party set a target to prevent and push back corruption to make the Party transparent and strong and bolster people’s confidence, contributing to the nation’s socio-economic development.

He also proposed measures to improve the effectiveness of the combat, especially by introducing policies and mechanism on socio-economic management.

The Party should focus more on sensitive areas such as land and natural resources management, capital construction, budget revenue and expenditure, management of public property, and state-owned business equitization.

Eight characteristics of socialism

Le Huu Nghia, Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration, clarified the eight characteristics of socialism mentioned in the draft political platform for the transitional period to socialism (supplemented and revised in 2011).

While talking about “rich people, strong country, democratic, equal, and civilised society” characteristics, Nghia focused on the importance of democracy which is the objective as well as motivation of socialism and quoted President Ho Chi Minh’s saying that “democracy is the master key to success”.

Regarding the economic characteristic, he expressed his agreement with the draft platform that Vietnam is making effort to build a highly developed economy based on modern forces of production.

The role of State-owned businesses

On behalf of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of Central State owned enterprise sector, Vu Duc Huy emphasized the role of State-owned corporations, especially in controlling inflation rate, maintaining macro-economy stability, and ensuring food and energy security, which helped the country overcome the economic crisis in 2008.

He asked the Party to objectively assess the State-owned corporations as they are the main forces in the country’s economy.

Le Phuoc Thanh of Quang Nam delegation made a presentation on promoting marine economy while ensuring national security. Another delegate, Trinh Long Bien, made one on strengthening Party’s supervision and inspection to contribute to building of a strong and transparent Party.