Development goal and long-term vision are a new and prominent highlight in the Documents of the 13^th Congress of the Party, which have been determined basing on scientific and practical grounds. They have been highly agreed by cadres, party members and people from all walks of life. This is undeniable.

In order to damage, and reduce the significance of the Party congresses; discredit the Party’s leadership and its goals and orientations for national development, hostile forces often distort the contents of the documents of the Party’s national congresses.

As for the 13^th Congress of the Party, a new and prominent highlight which has been stipulated in its Documents is to continue striving for socialism; at the same time, to set specific goals to 2025, 2030 and a vision to 2045 associated with the historical milestones of 100 anniversaries of the Party’s and the State’s foundations. Accordingly, the congress determined that: by 2025 our country will become a developing country with modern-oriented industry and an income of above low middle level; by 2030: our country will be a developing country with modern industry, high middle income, and by 2045, our country will become a developed country with high income towards socialist orientation. These goals demonstrate the nation's aspiration towards the future to successfully realise President Ho Chi Minh's will to build our country “more modern and beautiful”; at the same time, it shows the will of the entire Party, people and troop in the coming terms.

However, the political opportunists, reactionary and hostile forces see those goals as “illusion” (!). They argued that: we still aim for socialism while it has collapsed in the world is a “conservative” thing (!); and that: the goals set for 2030, 2045 are “impromptu” (!).

It should be seen that: the goal towards a prosperous socialist country is a strategic goal, which has been identified by our Party right in the 1930 Platform. That goal is affirmed and concretised in the principles and Party congresses for over the past 90 years. Since then, striving for that strategic goal, we have gained national independence and are gradually realising the goal of building socialism with the criterion “rich people, strong, democratic, equal and civilised country”. Although socialist system no longer exists in the world, it cannot thus negate the path towards socialism of our people, as well as that of all humanity. Because, the collapse of the socialist regime in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries is just the collapse of a specific model - the “Soviet” model. That collapse was caused by a subjective and decisive reason which was the mistakes of the leadership of the ruling Party who moved away from the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism in the construction of a new society, and the betrayal of socialist ideals of leaders in those countries. Therefore, this is not the fall of the ideal and aspirations to socialism of all human kind. In the platform of national construction in the transitional period to socialism (Supplemented and developed in 2011), our Party has affirmed that: “According to the law of evolution of history, humankind will definitely advance to socialism” and “Advancing to socialism is the aspiration of our people, is the right choice of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh, in accordance with the historical trend”. The great and historic achievements of the country's renewal cause over the past 35 years were attributed to the fact that we have always remained steadfast in the goal of national independence and socialism. Therefore, the 13^th Congress continues to affirm that the strategic goal of building socialism is the right choice, reflecting the consistency of our Party’s revolutionary line, not “illusion”, nor “conservative”.

The setting of medium-term goals (10 years) to 2030 and long-term goals (25 years) to 2045 has a solid scientific and practical basis; was carefully considered by our Party on the basis of thorough analysis of the international context and domestic capacity.

First of all, this is not the first time our Party has set goals, tasks, and solutions for medium and long terms, so it is not “illusory” or “impromptu”. In the past congresses, our Party has repeatedly proposed the 10-year socio-economic development strategies. At the 8^th Congress (1996), the Party set a target until 2020 - that is, a vision for the following 24 years. At the 11^th Congress (2011), the National Development Platform in the transitional period to socialism (Supplemented and Developed in 2011) of the Party set out the goals until the middle of the twenty-first century: “The entire Party and people must strive to build our country into a modern, socialist-oriented country”, a vision of about 40 years. The recent resolutions of the Central Committee and Politburo also define the goals until the middle of the twenty-first century and we are striving to realise those goals. This time, at the 13^th Congress, a difference in determining the medium and long term goals was made which was associated with the milestones of historical significance of the Party and State.

Second, the 13^th Congress Documents were carefully prepared; discussed at many seminars, conferences, forums; consulted with representatives of the National Assembly, the Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organisations and all classes of the people. The Documents have been revised 23 times, after receiving valid opinions from organisations, scientists, individuals, intellectuals, domestic and international experts; Party cadres and members; various strata of the people at home and overseas Vietnamese. Therefore, the Documents of the 13^th Congress in general, the development goals and vision of the Party in these Documents in particular, is the intellectual crystallisation of the entire Party, and people, rather than the “impromptu”, or “illusion”. A new highlight in the 13^th Congress Documents is that the identification of development objectives is carried out in an approach consistent with that of the world. Accordingly, with calculations of the World Bank (WB): the low middle income is below 4,045 USD/capita/year; the middle income is from 4,045 to 12,535USD/capita/year; and high income level is over 12,535 USD/capita/year. According to this approach, basing on the development practice of the past years, the 13^th Congress expects, by 2025, GDP will reach about 4,700 USD - 5,000 USD/capita/year, which means our country surpasses the low middle income; by 2030, GDP per capita will reach about 7,500 USD, which means that our country is at high average income. Thus, the expectation that by 2045, our country is a country with high income is completely feasible.

Thirdly, the capacity of our country after 35 years of renewal has been greatly improved compared to before, enabling us not only to expect, but also realise these goals. That is the theory of the renewal path, of socialism and the path to socialism in our country after 35 years of renewal, 30 years of implementing the National Construction Platform in the transitional period to socialism (1991), has become more and more solid and been gradually realised. Those are also great achievements with historical significance in economic, cultural, social, national defence, security and foreign relations development over the past time. The country has seen robust and comprehensive developments compared to the previous years of renewal. The scale of the economy has been increased by more than 2.9 fold, from 116 billion USD in 2010 to “more than 340 billion USD in 2020”, making it one of the 40 largest economies in the world, equal to or surpass some regional highly developed economy”. People's living standards have been significantly improved both physically and mentally. Per capita income increased more than 2.6 times from 1,331 USD in 2010 to nearly 3,500 USD in 2020, equal to nearly 9,000 USD in terms of purchasing power parity. Our economy is deeply and broadly integrated into the world economy with many new-generation free trade agreements having been signed and taken effect, notably: The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP), the European Union – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which are expected to provide the country with many opportunities to realise its goals. As the Political Report of the 13^th Congress has affirmed: “The country has never had such opportunity, potentiality, position and prestige like today”. It is the achievements of 35 years of implementation of the renewal cause, 30 years of implementing the 1991 National Construction Platform in the transitional period to socialism, especially in the 10 years of implementation of the Platform have proved the correctness and creativeness of the Party's renovation policy. Those achievements also confirm that our path to socialism is consistent with the reality of the country and the development trend of the times; at the same time, they are a strong proof to refute the distortions of hostile forces about the Party's development goals and visions.

In order to realise the stated goals, the 13^th Congress also set out development orientations and strategic solutions, which was generally summarized as “Strengthening the building and rectifying the Party and a pure and strong political system; arousing aspirations for national development, promoting the will and strength of great national solidarity combined with the strength of the time; continuing to promote comprehensively and synchronously the renewal cause; building and firmly defending the Fatherland, maintaining a peaceful and stable environment” for development. In the next 5 years, the entire Party, the entire people and the entire army will focus on implementing 6 key missions and 3 strategic breakthroughs in order to concretise the proposed development goals.

The above mentioned facts and figures have affirmed that the aspiration to develop “a prosperous and happy country” is not an “illusion” but a firmly-based one, stemming from a strong belief in the opportunity, potential, position and prestige of the country after 35 years of renewal; in the bravery and rich experience that the Party and People of Vietnam have tested and summarized.

With the consistency in the path chosen; with the efforts of the entire Party, people, and troop, we will definitely realise the goals set out by the 13^th Congress.

NGUYEN NGOC HOI