Improving Leadership and Ruling Capacity While Successfully Implementing the 13th Party Congress’s Resolution in the New Period

For more than 30 years of renewal, our country has “made great achievements of historical significance, with stronger and more comprehensive development than before Doi Moi... The country has never had the opportunity, potential, position and international prestige as it is today.”(3) It is due to our Party’s constant attention to building and correcting itself while regularly improving its leadership, its ruling and fighting capacity, and allowing it to overcome many difficulties and challenges. The Party has consistently and creatively applied Marxism-Leninism and the goal of national independence associated with socialism, step by step perfecting the road to building socialism, while properly determining the socio-economic, political, and cultural model in the transition period. It has worked in accordance with objective laws and historical reality serving as a solid theoretical and practical basis for leading the innovation cause to achieve great victories.

However, despite those achievements, there are still limitations and shortcomings in the government’s functions. For examples, socio-economic development has not yet stabilized and still faces a lot of difficulties and challenges. The Party’s leadership and the State’s governance still have inadequacies and ineffectiveness, particularly in some party organizations and state agencies. The Party’s method of leadership over the political system is still confused and not innovative enough. The mechanism for controlling power in the Party and State is not yet complete, synchronous, and effective (4).

In order to successfully implement the 13th Party Congress’s Resolution, the Party is first required to overcome its limitations and inadequacies, drastically renovate the Party’s style and methods of leadership and governance, and improve the Party’s leadership capacity by enacting the following fundamentals:

1) The Party needs to improve the quality and intellectual capacity of its membership, creatively applying Marxism - Leninism, Hồ Chí Minh Thought, Vietnamese national traditions and cultural quintessence, as well as the scientific and technological achievements of mankind. It needs to constantly perfect the policy of renewing socialism, overcoming challenges in response to unpredictable situations in revolutionary reality. Intellectual capacity, nature and advancement which are endogenous strengths form the basis and prerequisite for the implementation of the Party’s role and mission for the people and nation. In order to improve the Party’s intellectual capacity, it is necessary to attach importance to the work of summarizing the current reality, promoting theoretical research, and clarifying the theoretical and practical problems encountered on the road to socialism in Vietnam. This includes but is not limited to building a socialist- oriented market economy, renewing existing political institutions, and building a socialist law-governed State of the people, by the people and for the people. It includes perfecting the mechanism of Party leadership, State management, the people’s mastery, and promoting socialist democracy.

Simultaneously, it also includes strengthening ideological work, raising political awareness, and instilling revolutionary mettle in the Party and people. All cadres and Party members must constantly study, practice and improve their theoretical and professional competence in their work. It includes strongly renovating training and fostering leadership qualities necessary for the contingent of cadres and Party members to meet the requirements for all situations. Agencies at all levels must represent the quality and wisdom of the Party, while demonstrating the leadership and ruling capacity of the Party. It must strengthen personnel work and build a determined contingent of cadres, especially those working at strategic-levels, selecting personnel with good leadership qualities and high intellectual capacity, on a par with their assigned tasks, and arrange them in key positions of Party and State agencies. Likewise, the Party must improve the training quality, promote proper policies to attract and use talents in the leadership and management contingent especially at the strategic level.

2) It is imperative for the Party to improve its capacity to realize and institutionalize Party guidelines, and State policies and laws. The Party has shown innovation in its leadership over the years, especially in regard to the State’s institutionalization of the Party’s correct views and policies into laws, mechanisms, policies and plans for socio-economic development, but there are still limitations and shortcomings in many aspects. The legal system and policy institutions are not synchronized and are slow to innovate. They remain outdated and do not meet the requirements of the country’s current reality. Situations involving “group interests” have frequently emerged in the development and implementation of policies and have ultimately affected the activities of people and businesses, reduced the efficiency and effectiveness of the State’s management, and allowed corruption and negativity to arise.

These are main reasons for limitations in the Party’s leadership and ruling capacity. Therefore, Party organizations at all levels must direct State agencies to promote democracy and socialist rule of law. They must proactively and promptly formulate and institutionalize the Party’s guidelines, policies and resolutions, to build a synchronous, modern and strict legal system, creating conditions, motivations and resources to strongly promote socio-economic development, preventing corruption and reducing wastefulness and negativity while exercising State power. The capacity to implement the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policies and laws at all levels and sectors and also among the contingent of cadres, civil servants and public employees in general are still weak and limited in many areas,(5) impeding the low-quality and ineffective implementation of the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policies. This is an issue that the Party needs to resolve. The key to resolving these issues lies in human resources, institutions, and the policies themselves as well as the operating environment that needs to be renewed with breakthrough solutions.

3) Enhancing the Party’s leadership capacity in building and perfecting the socialist rule-of-law State requires a clean, strong political system that operates effectively and efficiently. For the past 30 years of the Party’s renovation work, Vietnam has achieved strong socio-economic development, stabilized its politics, and created a solid defense and national security. However, the political system has revealed some limitations and inadequacies in the relationship between the economy and politics, affecting its role in promoting socio-economic development. The apparatus of the political system is still cumbersome, costly, and ineffective. The organization of the government apparatus at all levels has been slow to reform while the arrangement and consolidation of the functions and tasks of the government agencies are still frequently passive, confused, and the unsynchronized. People’s Councils at all levels operate with low efficiency. The contingent of cadres, civil servants and public employees is large but not strong. Some of them lack required qualities and qualifications and cannot meet a task’s requirements. This causes obstacles to the overall socio-economic development in general and the Party’s comprehensive reform in particular.

Therefore, in the new period, it is necessary to strengthen the leadership of the Party to renew Vietnam’s political institutions in line with the nature of socialism, and its objective laws and the requirements of historical reality. First of all, it is necessary to identify an innovative model of the socialist political institution in the context of developing the market economy. The goal includes speeding up building and perfecting the rule of law, socialist democratization and international integration. Building and perfecting a socialist rule-of-law State based on strongly reforming the functions and tasks of agencies and exercising state power ensures the principle of assignment, close coordination and synchronization, and at the same time also ensures a system of checks and balances by supervising the exercise of state power, ensuring the rule-of-law principle. The result will be felt in civilized and modern legislative activities, strict law enforcement activities, and fair, respectful and disciplined judicial activities. Strengthening the Party’s leadership must include overcoming limitations and inadequacies in the work of making regulations and legislation, ensuring that the system of institutions, policies and laws are synchronized from central to local levels, and creating a facile and open legal environment for people and businesses. It is necessary to focus on consolidating and improving the operational quality of government agencies at all levels, especially the People’s Council.

The capacity and effectiveness of the Party’s leadership and ruling are implemented and demonstrated by the contingent of cadres and party members in state agencies. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the Party’s leadership in cadre work, to build a contingent of cadres, civil servants and public employees of high quality, capacity and professionalism, thereby meeting the executive requirements in governing the market economy, building e-government, adapting to the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and resulting in international integration.

4) The Party needs to focus on improving the Party’s leadership capacity in checking, supervising and balancing the power of the political system, ensuring its purity and strength. The supervision and balances of power in the entire political system is an important task of the Party. However, there are still many weaknesses and shortcomings apparent during the current implementation. For quite a long time, rules regarding inspection and supervision work were loosened. Discipline and permission were not strictly enforced and the power control mechanism in the Party and State was not complete and synchronous(6). This caused degradation in political thought, morality and lifestyle. “Self-evolution,” and “self-transformation” appeared in a large number of cadres and party members. Corruption and the ensuing negativity took place, directly affecting the survival of the Party and the socialist regime. In recent years, especially during the 11th and 12th congresses, the Party has stepped up and drastically seized its leadership in the fight against corruption and wastefulness but the situation is still complex. Therefore, the fight to prevent and repel regression, corruption and negativity among cadres and Party members should be pushed more drastically, not only from within the Party but also throughout the whole political system.

At the same time, the Party must strengthen the leadership over the State to build and perfect a legal system with strong institutions and a comprehensive and synchronous power control mechanism that “lock power in an institutional cage.” Thus, the fight against negativity continues to be fierce, with no forbidden zone, and no exceptions, so that cadres and civil servants “dare not, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt”.

5) And finally the Party must seek to improve the leadership of socio-political organizations, to gather and unite people of all classes from across the nation, to build a deep and solid political foundation. The leadership and ruling capacity is found not only in the Party itself, but also in the foundation and strength of the people from all classes. The revolutionary cause belongs to the people, and the Party must make good use of that strength for the revolution to succeed. Therefore, the Party must strengthen and improve the quality of the work of mass mobilization, paying practical attention to the people’s legitimate rights and interests. In this way the social structure will be constantly improving and enhancing the lives of all classes of people. Democracy will be promoted and the people will become pro- active in participating in the construction of the Party, State and socio-political organizations. In the context of the one-party regime, it is necessary to perfect, concretize and fully implement the mechanism of Party leadership and State management, yielding a truly substantive mastery by the people with an aim to promote human rights. Also, leaders of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations must improve the quality of their activities, especially performing the function of supervision and social criticism.

The key issue on improving the Party’s leadership and ruling capacity is to continue to strengthen Party building and rectification in the spirit of the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organization and cadres, so that the entire political system at all levels is really clean and strong.

From a political viewpoint, strengthening Party building must attach great importance to overcoming ideological and political deterioration in order to maintain the nature of the Party’s working class. In the process it needs to firmly adhere to the organization of Party building, thus improving the Party’s primal characteristics of a fighting spirit, mettle, and a firm revolutionary stance in the face of all challenges. This benefits cadres, Party members, committees at all levels, and particularly key leaders and managers, as well as strategic level cadres. It allows them to overcome weaknesses in leading, directing and organizing the implementation of the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policies and laws.

Practicing democracy must go hand in hand with strengthening Party discipline. Ideologically, strengthening Party building must focus on strongly renewing ideological and theoretical work. It brings a resolution to fight against false and hostile views, prevent and reverse the deterioration of political ideology, morality, lifestyle, and manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within the Party. Morally, to strengthen Party building means all cadres and Party members must seriously implement the Party’s regulations defining the responsibility to be exemplary, resolutely disciplining cadres and Party members who violate the regulations. This will result in preserving the Party’s prestige and its members’ quality. It will also result in improving the quality of grassroots party organizations and their party members. The political responsibilities of the Party committees and grassroots organizations in educating, managing, training, inspection and supervision of cadres and party members are emphasized. Renovating the different forms of operation, improving the leadership capacity and power of party organizations, especially party organizations in state agencies will ensure a positive political orientation and help to prevent corruption. It will assist screening and removing from the Party those who are not eligible for their positions.

Therefore, continuing to renew personnel work, especially at the strategic level, will require a complete set of regulations on training personnel. The result will be a contingent of cadres and leaders with solid political qualities, pure morality, and outstanding abilities, who dare to think, dare to speak, dare to do, dare to take responsibility, dare to be innovative and creative, dare to face difficulties and challenges and ultimately dare to act for the common good. They will develop a sound reputation, be truly pioneering and exemplary, and form a nucleus of solidarity. Along with this will follow a process of completing regulations on the rights, responsibilities and power control of leaders in cadre work. It will provide a wall of resistance toward those with bad ambitions. Problems with cadres will be strictly handled with administrative discipline by the party and the rule of “no forbidden zones – no exceptions,” for cadres who commit violations, even after they change jobs or retire. To step up and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Party inspection, supervision and discipline it must be timely, resolute, thorough, and synchronous. It must handle violations strictly, not only in Party organizations, but also in agencies as well as political and social organizations.

The Party’s leadership and ruling capacity must be improved in line with further innovating the methods of leadership for State activities. The Party’s leadership and ruling members must thoroughly grasp the principle of law-abiding leadership that upholds the rule of law. It must be democratic, respecting and promoting the people’s right to self-mastery. It must ensure the active and lawful role of State agencies, be scientific, advanced and suitable to the requirements of innovation and creativity in the national development.

In 2021, the 13th Party Congress was successfully held amidst the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic that killed thousands while millions of people infected nationwide. Along with those huge losses, the pandemic also seriously affected socio-economic development. The whole Party as well as the people and the army had to buckle up and fight the epidemic. The economy’s production, service and labor chains were broken as many businesses stagnated and the economy suffered damage. However, under the wise leadership of the Party, the whole political system and the Vietnamese people made a great effort and overcame the challenges.

By the end of December 2021, showing strong determination and drastic action, nearly 89.2% of the population over 18 years of age had been vaccinated with two doses of Covid-19 vaccine,(7) a level much higher than that recommended by the World Health Organization. Today, Covid-19 in Vietnam has been brought under control. The economy has recovered and shown positive growth. Vietnam’s import and export figures have reached a record of over 670 billion USD, up 22.6 % compared to 2020. The Direct Foreign Investment (FDI) gained 31 billion USD in 2021 over the previous year. Vietnam was in the top 20 countries to attract the most FDI globally (8).