Advancing towards socialism is Vietnamese people’s aspiration and our Party’s and President Ho Chi Minh’s correct choice, which is in accordance with reality of Viet Nam and development trend of history. This is a universal truth, which has been tested in Vietnamese people’s revolutionary struggle over the past 90 years, especially in 35 years’ reform of the country.

In the course of leading the revolution, the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) always redouble their efforts to study and draw up guidelines for building socialism in accordance with each period of time, thereby contributing to victories of national liberation in the past as well as in today’s building and protection of the socialist Fatherland of Viet Nam. The 13^th Party Congress set out the guidelines for building socialism in the new period with 12 major orientations towards comprehensive, sustainable development of the country. These orientations have been discussed holistically and profoundly in the book titled “Some Theoretical and Practical Issues on Socialism and the Path towards Socialism in Viet Nam”.

Since its inception and throughout the course of revolutionary struggle, given its steadfastness towards Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s thought, our Party has persistently affirmed that socialism is its goals and ideals and Vietnamese people’s aspiration. Advancing towards socialism is an objective requirement and an inevitable way of Vietnamese revolution for the sake of national independence and people’s happiness. Our Party has gradually renewed its theoretical thinking on socialism and set out reform guideline, which marks a huge transformation of significant importance on the path to socialist building in Viet Nam. Reform is a historic choice; a process of deep, thorough change in perception, theoretical thinking, and policy on national construction, development, and defence; really becomes a great, creative product of the CPV and Vietnamese people. Thanks to the entire people’s and military’s persistence and effort under the Party’s leadership, we have gained significant achievements of historic dimension, which can be summed up as follows, “Our country has never had such fortune, position, potential, and international prestige as it does today.” These achievements have been bolstering confidence and inspiring our people’s strong desire and resolve to reach new levels for the sake of sustainable development and prosperity of the country as well as people’s happiness. They are also fundamental conditions for us to firmly advance on the path to socialism according to the spirit of the Resolution of the Party’s 13^th Congress laid out for the 2021 – 2030 period with a vision for 2045 and further enhanced and improved by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong with following basic orientations.

The release of the book “Some Theoretical and Practical Issues on Socialism and the Path towards Socialism in Viet Nam” (photo: tapchicongsan.org.vn)

First, it is extremely important to synchronously establish and improve institutions and regulations on sustainable development in every aspect, including economy, politics, culture, society, and environment. Demand for sustainable development of culture, which is on a par with other sectors, is a prominent feature and vital supplement in the 13^th Party Congress’s document that needs to be further sharpened. “We regard culture as spiritual foundation of the society, an endogenous strength, and driver of national development and defence; cultural development in line with economic growth and social progress and equality as a fundamental orientation in the course of socialist building in Viet Nam”, said General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

The 2nd orientation is to improve institutions and regulations on developing the socialist-oriented market economy. General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made it clear that the introduction of conception of developing the socialist-oriented market economy is a very basic and creative theoretical breakthrough of our Party and an important theoretical achievement in 35 years’ implementation of reform guideline, which originates from reality of Viet Nam and selectively absorbs experience of the world. To successfully carry out this policy requires first and foremost establishment of an environment conducive to mobilising, distributing, and effectively using existing social resources with a view to promoting investment, production, business, and a renewal model of economic growth based on science and modern technologies. This will help to accelerate digital transformation, building of a digital country and society, and innovation in order to improve the economy’s effectiveness and competitiveness in the context of increasingly deep and wide international integration.

The 3rd orientation aims to create breakthroughs in fundamentally, comprehensively reforming education and training, cultivating high-quality human resources, and attracting and retaining talented people. This orientation comes from Ho Chi Minh’s thought on appointing talented people to important posts: “National reconstruction requires the involvement of talented people” and detection, attraction, and use of talented people for important posts in order to cultivate high-quality human resources for national development are essential missions. General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong requests to develop human resources, especially the high-quality ones, and prioritise those used for leadership, management, and critical fields on the basis of improving and making fundamental, dramatic, holistic transformations in education and training quality in connection with suitable employment and use of talented people.

The 4th orientation in developing people and building Vietnamese culture receive attention of the General Secretary, who regards this as one of the most important, prominent contents in documents of the 13^th Party Congress. The Resolution of the 13^th Party Congress makes it clear that comprehensive development of people and building of an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity to enable Vietnamese culture and people to truly become an endogenous strength and momentum for national development and defence. Regarding people and culture both as a driver and endogenous strength for promoting national development with a view to achieving the goals of becoming a developing and upper-middle income country with modern industry by 2030 and a developed and high-income economy by 2045 marks a vital theoretical development in our Party’s perception of sustainable development.

The 5th orientation is to ensure human security. Comprehensive development of people must take centre stage in socio-economic development strategy. People must be considered the highest goal of development. Everyone must be entitled to the fruit of economic development. According to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, management for social development must be effective and strict, ensuring social security and human security.

The 6th orientation focuses on proper exploitation and use of national resources, adaptation to climate change, and environmental protection because the exploitation of natural resources has lacked sustainability and effectiveness. This orientation requires us to strictly refrain from trading the environment for economic growth. Therefore, it is necessary to take initiative in adapting to climate change effectively and disaster relief; preventing and responding to epidemics to protect people’s health; managing, exploiting, and sustainably using natural resources, ensuring sustainable development.

The 7th orientation seeks to firmly preserve political security, social order and safety, human security, cyber security, establishment of an orderly society. There needs to proactively prevent the risk of war and conflict from afar; early detect and timely address adverse elements, especially those potentially causing sudden changes; step up struggle to defeat all plots and acts of subversion carried out by hostile forces, reactionaries, and political opportunists. According to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, it is important to proactively prevent risk of war and conflict from afar; resolutely and persistently safeguard independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the Fatherland; ensure national security and social order and safety.

The 8th orientation seeks to further pursue a foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation, and diversification; take initiative in deepening international integration in a holistic, extensive and intensive, and effective manner; firmly maintain a peaceful, stable environment; ceaselessly raise Viet Nam’s position and prestige in international arena. Such international integration will enable us to take advantage of strength and multifaceted opportunities brought about by the age, especially in terms of science, technology, and commerce to narrow the development gap between our country and the world, thus requiring realising the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation, diversification, proactive and active international integration in a comprehensive, intensive and extensive, and effective fashion.

The 9^th orientation specifies that extensive practice and leverage of socialist democracy and guarantee of substantive democracy in the society are vital premises for social consensus and solidarity for the aim of national development. Therefore, it is necessary to extensively practise and bring into play socialist democracy and people’s right to mastery, raise people’s confidence and social consensus.

The 10^th orientation clearly points out the need to establish and improve a socialist rule-of-law state, which is pure, strong, adept, compact, operationally efficient and effective, for the people, and for the development of the country. When the state fully and effectively carries out the guideline “the people know, the people discuss, the people do, the people monitor, and the people enjoy”, national strength will be multiplied; the socialist state will be wholeheartedly supported by the entire people and become increasingly robust. Consequently, there needs to establish and improve the socialist rule-of-law state; make the political system pure, strong, adept, compact, operationally efficient and effective; continue to step up the struggle against corruption, wastefulness, bureaucracy, and wrongdoings.

The 11^th orientation determines that the purity and robustness of the political system and the Party’s ruling capacity are a strong guarantee of the socialist regime. Therefore, the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress and General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong clearly specify the need to cultivate a corps of cadres, party members, civil servants, and public employees, especially cadres at strategic level and leading people, who possess fine dignity, capacity and prestige on a par with mission requirements.

The 12^th orientation is to continue to thoroughly grasp and successfully handle major relations, including between renewal, stability, and development; economic reform and political reform; complying with market laws and ensuring the socialist orientation; developing productive forces and establishing and gradually perfecting socialist relations of production; the State, the market, and society; economic growth on the one hand and cultural development, guarantee of social progress and equity, and environmental protection on the other; building socialism and defending the socialist Fatherland; independence, self-reliance, and international integration; Party’s leadership, State’s governance, and people’s ownership. This orientation is further broadened to include the relation between democracy exercise and strengthening of law enforcement and guarantee of social order. This relation is emphasised with the aim of repelling the abuse of democracy regardless of law and order, stressing the relation between freedom and responsibility as well as between rights and duties of all citizens to the country.

Consequently, it can be said that the General Secretary’s book makes vital contribution to summation, affirming that the CPV has established, gradually improved, and materialised the theory about guidelines for reforming Viet Nam on the basis of reality of 35 years’ reform and 30 years’ implementation of the Platform on National Construction in the transitional period to socialism. The book also manifests the vision, goals, and orientations in national development; provides valuable lessons, guiding viewpoints, and major relations in accordance with objective laws to further supplement and creatively develop theory about socialism and the path towards socialism in Viet Nam in the new period.

Associate Professor, Doctor VU QUANG VINH

Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics