Socialist Republic of Vietnam

(
Take 1 of 4)


Ha Noi, Feb. 2 (VNA) -- The following are excerpts from the political report drafted by the eighth Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) Central Committee, which will be made public on Feb. 3 for comments from the entire people before it is submitted to the ninth National CPV Congress, scheduled for March this year.

I. Viet Nam in the 20th Century and its Development Prospect in the 21st Century.

In the 20th century, Viet Nam experienced great and deep changes, particularly in its national struggle for independence, freedom, reunification and socialism. It was a century crowned with successes and triumphs of historical and epochal significance.

The foundation of the Communist Party of Viet Nam in 1930 on the basis of the Viet Nam Revolutionary Youth League and other predecessor communist organizations marked a turning point in Viet Nam's Revolution. Over the past 71 years of construction and development, the Party has led the Vietnamese people to great victories.

First, it was the success of the August 1945 Revolution and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam as a result of consecutive revolutionary movements that took place for 15 years after the birth of the Party, from the Soviet-Nghe Tinh Movement and the 1936-39 Democratic Campaign to the 1939-1945 Movement for National Liberation, although these movements sometimes ended in bloodshed. The semi- feudal and colonial regime in the country was eliminated, and a new era for the nation - an era of national independence and socialism - was opened up.

Second, it was the success of the resistance wars for national liberation and national defence that defeated old and new colonialism, leading to the completion of the national people's democratic revolution and the implementation of national reunification, taking the entire country to socialism, and making an important contribution to the world people's struggle for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress.

Third, it was the success of the national renovation process that is gradually taking the country on a transitional path toward socialism. Inheriting the achievements and experiences in socialist construction in the North in the war time and in the early years after the country was reunified, and through search and trial, the Party has initiated and led the implementation of the policies of renovation, socialist construction and national defence, which are suitable to Viet Nam's realities and the new world situation.

The international and regional situation, together with their trend of development, had great impact on the situation in our country. We are facing great opportunities and challenges.

Together with the successes gained previously in national construction and defence, the great and important accomplishments in the past 15 years of national renovation have significantly raised the position and strength of our country. Infrastructure facilities of the economy have been improved. Viet Nam possesses great potential in terms of natural resources and labour force. The Vietnamese people possess a number of precious characteristics. The socio-political stability of our country is maintained. An environment of peace, cooperation, coordination, and international integration and active trends in the world have enabled our country to continue bringing into full play its internal strength and competitiveness, make full use of external sources, including investment capital, advanced technology, management experience and market expansion to serve the national industrialization and modernization. This great opportunity has enabled our country to record new steps of development.

At the same time, Viet Nam has to face a number of challenges. Four threats, which have been warned of by the Party - namely economically lagging behind other countries in the region and the world; deviation from socialism; corruption and bureaucracy, and "peaceful evolution" caused by hostile forces - still remain and many develop unpredictably. Those threats are interwoven and interacted, therefore each of them should be equally addressed. What should be stressed is that our country is mainly an agricultural one with a low economic starting point, and a wide development gap to keep up with other countries given the circumstances of increasingly fierce international competition. If we fail to advance rapidly, we will be left behind economically. In addition, our country also faces bureaucracy, corruption and ethical degeneration affecting a group of officials and Party members, thus causing mis-trust among the people.

II. Viet Nam's Situation in Past Five Years and 15 Years of Renovation

Apart from enjoying some advantages, our country faced a number of difficulties and challenges over the past five years. They included existing weaknesses of the economy, severe consequences of consecutive natural calamities, adverse impacts left by the financial-monetary crisis in Asia, and complicated developments in the world. In such situation, our entire Party and people did their best to carry out the Eighth National Party Congress Resolution and obtained significant achievements:

- Maintaining good economic growth with an annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate averaging 6.94 percent;

- Recording socio-cultural progress and continually improving the people's living conditions;

- Ensuring socio-political stability basically and strengthening national defence and security;

- Paying due attention to Party building and rectification and consolidating the political system; and

- Expanding foreign relations and actively integrating into the world's economy with good results.

However, there remained shortcomings and mistakes during the course of carrying out the Eighth National Party Congress Resolution as follows:

- The growth of the national economy has not yet been stable and efficient, and its competitiveness is still low.

- A number of imperative and serious social and cultural issues have been slowly solved.

- The lack of a harmonious legal framework has failed to generate a strong driving force for development.

- The state of corruption, wasteful spending, bureaucracy and degeneration among a number of officials and Party members was very serious.

- The implemention of the Party's resolutions, guidelines and policies was not well organized, while its discipline and order were not strictly observed.

- Some viewpoints and guidelines were not fully understood and implemented at all levels and echelons.

- The administrative reform was conducted slowly and with low efficiency.

- The ideological and theoretical as well as organizational and personnel work remained weak and left problems unsolved.

Despite the failure to achieve some of the targets and tasks set forth in the five-year (1996-2000) plan and the Eighth National Party Congress Resolution, on an overall assessment of the past 10 years, particularly of the targets set forth in the 10-year Strategy, the country obtained great and important achievements:

The gross domestic product (GDP) estimated for 2000 was double that in 1990. Infrastructure development in many social and economic sectors and the production capacity of some key industries have increased markedly. The country shifted from an economy prone to shortage of food and consumer goods and from a centrally planned economy to a socialist-oriented market economy; and from a national economy dominated by just two sectors to a multi-sector economy. The living conditions of the people were improved dramatically. The country had come out of a prolonged socio-economic crisis, overcome political shocks caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union and other East European socialist countries, and got out of the monetary-financial crisis in Asia which, however, left severe impact on the national economy. The country was able to circumvent an economic embargo and actively integrated itself into the world economy, maintained political stability, strengthened national defence and security. The nation has much greater strength now than 10 years ago.--VNA (To be continued)