General Secretary To Lam stresses Party's upcoming central tasks

Below is the translation of the article for reference:

A new Spring has come, bringing joy and new vitality to all parts of our Fatherland. This Spring becomes more meaningful when the entire Party, people and army celebrate the 95th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam (February 3, 1930-Febuary 3, 2025) as a brilliant milestone for the whole country to enter a new stage of development towards a bright future.

During the past 95 Springs, our Party – the vanguard of the working class, the working people, and the Vietnamese nation – has led the country through countless hardships and challenges, achieving great victories and achievements, leaving a bold mark in the nation's glorious history.

In 1930, the Communist Party of Viet Nam was founded in a special historical context and carried a special mission. From mid-nineteenth century, French colonists invaded our country and imposed brutal rule, causing our people to suffer slavery and misery. Imbued with patriotic tradition and unyielding spirit, our people risen up to fight continuously and strongly in many ways and approaches, from Can Vuong movement to Yen The uprising, from Dong Du, Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc, and Duy Tan movements to Yen Bai uprising, etc, our people fought extremely heroically and suffered many sacrifices, but all these were not successful due to the lack of a correct policy, measures to mobilize the aggregate strength of the whole nation, appropriate fighting methods, and especially the lack of an organization or a political party that meets the needs of the nation and the times.

At the same time, the development of the workers' movement along with the victory of the Russian October Revolution in 1917 opened up a new horizon, lighting up hope for oppressed nations and strongly encouraging the movement to fight for independence across all continents.

Given the demands of the history and with a burning desire for national liberation, Nguyen Tat Thanh, the passionate young patriot went abroad to find ways to save the country. He travelled across continents, through nearly 30 countries, hundreds of cities, overcoming countless hardships and thorns and did many things to earn a living and to learn the "wisdom" of the humanity. It was this journey that helped the Vietnamese youth understand clearly that the source of all sufferings of the working classes came from the oppression and exploitation of imperialist capitalism and shape his clear class consciousness.

With his determination to gain "freedom for my people, independence for my Fatherland", Nguyen Tan Thanh came to Marxism – Leninism naturally, as a historical necessity and found out the fundamental issues of the path to national liberation associated with class liberation and human liberation, national independence associated with socialism.

Given the historical requirements and under the guiding light of Marxism-Leninism, Nguyen Tat Thanh-Nguyen Ai Quoc conducted many activities, diligently preparing ideologically, theoretically and personally for the birth of a pioneering political organization to lead the Vietnamese revolution. He spread Marxism-Leninism to Viet Nam through works such as Judgement of the French Colonial Regime (1952), Revolutionary Road (1927), and trained revolutionary cadres and promoted revolutionary movement in Viet Nam.

On February 3, 1930, in Kowlon (Hong Kong, China), comrade Nguyen Ai Quoc chaired the conference to merge three communist parties in Viet Nam in to the Communist Party of Viet Nam. This is the decision of great historical significance, gathering the three communist party organizations into a single force with a clear revolutionary and unified path. The first Political Platform adopted at the conference figured out the basic path of the Vietnamese revolution, meeting the pressing needs of history and became a flag to father and unite the communist party organizations, revolutionary forces, and the entire nation. This historic event put an end to the crisis in the policy and organization of the Vietnamese revolution, opening up a new era in our country's history – the era of struggle for national independence and advancement to socialism.

Since its inception, with the right guidelines, appropriate and creative methods, practical organizational capability, and tenacious fighting, and heroic sacrifices of many generations of cadres, party members, and with the people's trust, love, support and whole-hearted protection, the Communist Party of Viet Nam led the country to gain great victories of historic and era significance.

Within just 15 days after its birth, the Party evolved continuously and led the national liberation struggle, achieving the Victory of the August Revolution, establishing the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam on September 2, 1945, eradicating the semi-feudal colonial regime in Viet Nam, opening a new chapter in the nation's history. Vietnamese people from being slaves became the masters of the country, the society and their own lives.

After the success of the August Revolution, our country faced countless difficulties and challenges, concurrently confronting "hunger enemy, illiteracy enemy, and foreign invaders".

In a situation "hang by a thread", our Party led our people to steadfastly protect and build the young government, while actively preparing in all aspect for the resistance war against French colonial invasion. Our Party, with right guidelines and capacity to promote the strength of the entire nation, led our people to defeat all enemy's plots and invasion plans throughout nine years of arduous and heroic resistance war, culminating in the historic Dien Bien Phu victory, forcing the French colonists to sign the Geneva Agreement on restoring peace in Indochina in 1954.

During 20 years afterward, our country was divided and there was no peace. Under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, with an iron will and unshakable determination, our people overcome countless hardships and sacrifices during the great resistance war to defeat the war strategies of the American imperialists, completely liberating the South, reunifying the country, and writing down one of the most heroic pages of our nation, an event of global and contemporary significance. This was the realization of the vision and the determination adopted at the 3rd National Party Congress in September 1960: "Our country Viet Nam is one, our Vietnamese people are one. Our country will definitely unify on the basis of independence and democracy, our nation will definitely be reunited in peace, freedom and happiness. Rivers may dry up, mountains may erode, but our people's will to unify the Fatherland will be unshakable and definitely we will win".

While having to urgently overcoming the extremely severe consequences left by the war, our country had to continue to face new challenges. The Party continued to lead our entire army and people to strive to revive the society and economy, improve people's life, and stubbornly fight to maintain every inch of the Fatherland's sacred soil, protect national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and living space of the nation, and concurrently performing noble international duty for the Cambodian people.

In the face of the new requirements in national development process, to overcome the shortcomings caused by the centrally-planning and bureaucratic mechanism that led to the socio-economic crisis in the post-war years, our Party envisioned and implemented a comprehensive innovation policy, marking an important milestone on the transition to socialism in Viet Nam. Such policy has proved to meet the practical requirements of the process of building the country's economy, defense, security, and diplomacy, demonstrating the steadfast stuff and creative thinking of the Communist Party of Viet Nam and opening up a new stage for national development.

After nearly 40 years of implementing the innovation policy under the leadership of the Party, our country has overcome all difficulties and obtained great achievements of historic significance. From a poor, war-torn, besieged and isolated country, Viet Nam has become a developing, middle-income country deeply and widely integrating into the global politics, the global economy, and the global human civilization, undertaking numerous international responsibilities and promoting active roles at many important international organizations and multilateral forums. National independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity have been maintained, national interests have been ensured. The size of the economy reached over US$450 billion in 2024, making Viet Nam the 32nd largest economy in the world and among the top 20 economies in terms of trade and foreign investment attraction. People's life has improved remarkably, the poverty rate has fell significantly down to 1.93 percent (according to multidimensional poverty standards) compared to that in 1986. Political, economic, cultural, social, scientific-technological, defense and security potentials have been constantly improved. Diplomatic stature has been increasingly expanded; the country's position and prestige have been increasingly enhanced, making positive contributions to addressing regional and international issues. Viet Nam has undertaken many tasks as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United Nations and other international organizations and institutions, and widely recognized and highly appreciated by the international community.

The great achievements of the Vietnamese revolution over the past 95 years came as a result of various factors, in which the correct and wise leadership of the Party is the top decisive factor, along with the sacrifices, fighting, hard work and creativeness of the entire people and army under the leadership of the Party, as well as the support and assistance from international friends. In difficult and challenging times, our Party exhibited its stuff and solidarity, being a unified bloc of will and action, thereby leading and directing the whole political system to strive to gain great and comprehensive achievements across fields.

At the same time, by leading the revolution process, our Party has become increasingly mature and strong in performing its role and mission of revolutionary leadership, meeting the trust and expectations of the people. That reality has confirmed that in Viet Nam, no other political force other than the Communist Party of Viet Nam that has enough capacity, stuff, wisdom, experience and prestige to lead the country through all difficulties and challenges and bring our nation's revolution from victory to victory.

Looking back at the 95 years of building, fighting and development of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, we express our infinite gratitude and respectfully commemorate Great President Ho Chi Minh – the genius leader, the national liberation hero, who enlightened the revolutionary path and made our nation proud. We respectfully commemorate the Party's senior leaders, heroic myrtyrs, compatriots and comrades who fought steadfastly and sacrificed themselves in the glorious revolutionary cause for independence and freedom of the Fatherland, for socialism and for the peaceful, happy and prosperous life of the people.

The Party, State and people of Viet Nam always bear in mind the merits of those who have contributed to the country, families of martyrs, Heroic Vietnamese Mothers, heroes of people's armed forces, labor heroes, wounded servicemen, comrades who were imprisoned in colonial and imperialist prions, soldiers who fought on all fronts and performed noble international duties, veterans and those who diligently worked to create material wealth for the society. We are also grateful to our comrades and international friends who have always stood side by side, supported and assisted Vietnamese people in the past struggle for national independence, as well as their continued cooperation and assistance for the current cause of national construction and development.

Looking back at the history and glorious and proud traditions of the Party over the last 95 years, we see more clearly the responsibility of today's generation of leaders and party members in the nation's historical progress. The Party's current mission is to lead and bring the country into an era of development and prosperity, successfully building a socialist Viet Nam where each individual leads a prosperous and happy life and is support to develop and get rich; making more contributions to peace, stability and development in the region and the world, for happiness of the mankind and global civilization. The top priority is to successfully realize the strategic goals: Viet Nam will become a developing country with modern industry and high middle-income by 2023 and a developed and high-income socialist country by 2045.

To continue to shoulder that responsibility of the history, the Party must constantly grow, maintain its revolutionary nature, improve leadership capacity and maintain great bond with the people. The Party needs to innovate and rectify itself, promote internal democracy, build a strong and clean contingent of cadres, be steadfast with the goals and ideals of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's ideology. At the same time, the Party must constantly perfect its theory, improve the quality of ideological work, and create a solid foundation to lead the country to achieve fast and sustainable development.

Given the new requirements of the revolution cause, especially in the context of the country's extensive and intensive international integration and the world's challenging landscape, the Party building work needs even more attention and innovation, with a focus on the following key aspects:

Firstly, continue to stick to the goals and ideals of the Party. Our Party was established with a mission of leading the revolution, representing the interests of the working class, working people and the entire Vietnamese nation. Right from the early days of fighting for independence until becoming the ruling Party, the Party has always been steadfast with the goal of national liberation, building socialism, bringing prosperity and happiness to the people. Our Party does not exist for its own benefits but works for the benefits of the entire people. The Party's leadership power does not come from itself, but is empowered by the people and entrusted by the people. The Party has no other purpose than to fight for the benefits of the people and the nation. President Ho Chi Minh once stressed: "The Party is not an organization to make rich mandarins. It must fulfill the task of liberating the nation, and making the Fatherland rich and strong, and fellowmen happy". Therefore, the Party must maintain close bond with the people, taking the people's interests as the highest goal, and maintain its revolutionary nature and pioneering role. In the current context, the Party must remain steadfast to its ideological foundation, continue to creatively apply Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's ideology, firmly protect the path to socialism. At the same time, the Party must constantly innovate, self-correct, improve its leadership capacity, build a clean and strong Party to continue leading the nation on the path of development in the new era, and realize the goal of making Viet Nam a country with prosperous individuals and strong, democratic, equitable and advanced nation.

Secondly, constantly improve the Party's theoretical system. The solid theoretical foundation is the guideline for Party's actions, determining the correctness of its leadership and national development strategies. Over the past 95 years of revolutionary leadership, the Party has drawn many lessons and gradually develop theoretical thinking on the path to socialism, on the model of socialist-oriented market economy, on building a law-governed socialist State, on national defense and security and diplomacy among many other important fields. The perfection of the theoretical foundation is the urgent requirement for the Party to continue leading the country in the current global context of profound changes across all aspects of life. However, new issues often emerge in the development process, requiring the Party to constantly review the reality and supplement and develop the theoretical foundation.

The review work must focus on the truth, accurately evaluate the results achieved, frankly and objectively point out limitations, shortcomings and causes; clearly identify bottlenecks that hinder national development, thereby breakthrough solutions could be put forward to create strong driving force for development in coming time. Research work must also point out which big opportunities that should be taken advantage of, which challenges that need to be overcome, new factors that should be taken into consideration. Frankness, objectiveness, science, honesty, consistency, and cautiousness are necessary to avoid mistakes and willful actions. These issues need to be clarified during the process of building documents to be submitted to the 14th National Party Congress. This is not just the work of the Party's specialized agencies but also requires the participation of the whole political system, intellectuals, theoretical research agencies, cadres, Party members and people.

Thirdly, continue to build a strong and clean Party. This is the decisive task for the existence and development of the Party. It is necessary to constantly strengthen the solidarity and unity within the Party, improve the leadership capacity of each Party organization; build grassroots-level Party organizations that are truly clean and strong, serving as the core of the political system and maintaining close bond with the people. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen inspection and supervision and Party discipline; promote self-criticism and criticism, resolutely handle cadres and Party members with degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle, and with signs of "self-evolution", "self-transformation"; improve efficiency and effectiveness of inspection and supervision work to firmly maintain the Party's discipline and rules. Continue the work of preventing and combating corruption, wrongdoings and wastefulness in a drastic, synchronous, comprehensive and methodological manner, with no restricted areas and exceptions in order to clean up the apparatus and consolidate the people's trust in the Party. Cadres, Party members, especially heads of party committees at all levels, need to uphold their responsibility to set an example, always be attentive to people's opinions, promptly address the people's legitimate aspirations, and create social consensus. At the same time, it is necessary to promote the people's supervisory role over cadres and Party members, ensuring that the Party is always the leading force loyal to the interests of the nation and for the happiness of the people.

Fourth, stay determined to streamline the organization of the political system, and overcome the cumbersome and overlapping situation. In many recent Party Congresses, documents have emphasized specific tasks on streamlining the organizational apparatus or researching and building an overall model of organizing the political system in the new period. The Party has also continuously issued many Resolutions and Conclusions to lead the implementation of the policy of innovating and rearranging the apparatus of the political system. However, the awareness and actions of some Party committees, Party organizations, and heads of some agencies, organizations, units, and localities are not yet complete, profound, and their determination not yet high, their actions not yet drastic, thus the arrangement of the political system's apparatus has not yet been synchronous and comprehensive, staff streamlining has not been linked with restructuring the public workforce. Therefore, the current organization of the political system's apparatus remains cumbersome, with many levels and many focal points; operational effectiveness and efficiency do not meet requirements and tasks; the functions, tasks, powers, organization, and working relationships between many agencies and departments are not very clear and overlap; the division of responsibilities and decentralization of power are not consistent and reasonable.

Compared to the country's enormous changes after 40 years of innovation, the development of the socialist law-governed State and scientific and technological achievements, and the organizational structure of our country's political system remains basically the same as designed decades ago, many issues are no longer suitable for new conditions, which is contrary to the laws of development; creating a situation of "Talking without doing". Therefore, the key work in the current period and the coming time is to build an overall model of organizing the apparatus of the political system to meet the requirements and tasks in the new stage of revolution.

Fifth, take care of building a contingent of cadres, especially key officials at all levels. To meet the increasingly high requirements of development and international integration, the contingent of cadres, especially key officials at all levels must meet important standards: having strong political stuff, pure ethics, high sense of responsibility, truly exemplary, honest, dedicated nature to serving the people; having innovative and creative thinking; knowing how to seize opportunities, daring to think, daring to do, daring to take responsibility for the common good, not avoiding, being stagnant, or being passive in the face of new problems that arise; having practical capacity, leadership and management ability.

To do this, it is necessary to strongly innovate thinking in personnel work. Personnel work processes must become a mechanism to select the best and most worthy people, not a mechanism to legitimize the selection, appointment, and promotion of people who do not meet the standards or really work for the people. In addition to making the appointment and rotation process transparent and strengthening inspection and supervision, it is necessary to build a mechanism to detect, protect and utilize talented people, and at the same time having a mechanism, in which anyone who introduces or appoints officials failing to meet standards and lacking quality must be held responsible.

Sixth, strengthen the application of science - technology and digital transformation in Party building work. Advances in information technology, artificial intelligence, big data and digital transformation are generating strong impacts on all aspects of the society. The application of scientific and technological achievements in Party building work is not only an urgent requirement but also a breakthrough to improve the Party's leadership capacity and fighting power in the new situation. Information technology and artificial intelligence will contribute to modernizing the management of party members and operating the Party organization. Building a party member management system on a digital platform helps increase transparency, accuracy and efficiency in record management, work process, evaluation and classification of party members. This helps party committees at all levels accurately grasp the situation of their party organizations, thereby helping them to reasonably design training plans and utilize their workforce, and overcome bureaucracy and impracticality. Digital technology also helps improve the effectiveness of propaganda, political and ideological education. Digital platforms and social networks can be used to disseminate the Party's policies and guidelines to a large number of officials, party members and people in a quick, vivid and effective manner. New technologies also help improve the ability to early detect emerging problems, analyze, forecast, and propose appropriate solutions. Digital technology provides accurate, objective data, helping party committees make the right decisions, based on scientific analysis instead of emotions.

Seventhly, the central and urgent key tasks for 2025. The party committees at all levels, each party cell, each party member must focus their strength and intelligence together with the people to strive to complete and exceed the targets enshrined in the Resolutions of Party committees at all levels, especially socio-economic development targets; organize Party congresses at all levels towards the 14th National Party Congress, focusing on contributing opinions to the contents of the Party documents; introduce and select truly outstanding people for the political system at all levels; create an atmosphere of true democracy, solidarity, and enthusiasm for production, construction, and development of the homeland among all classes of people.

Looking back on 95-year history of the Party, we have the right to be proud and fully believe in the bright future of the Party and the nation. In 1945, when the Party led the entire people to successfully carry out the August Revolution, our Party had only nearly 5,000 members. With the correct policy, steadfast spirit, indomitable will and patriotism, the Party led the people to win glorious victory, establishing the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. By 1960, when the country entered the period of long-term resistance war against the U.S., the number of party members increased to about 500,000 people, becoming the nucleus leading the entire nation to fight for independence and unification of the country.

Today, with more than 5.4 million party members, our Party is constantly growing in both quantity and quality, capable of shouldering the responsibility of moving the country forward in the new era. Each party member is a symbol of the faith, intelligence and will of solidarity of the entire nation. The Communist Party of Viet Nam, in the light of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's ideology, will continue to successfully complete its historical mission. Firmly believing in the strength of the Party and the solidarity of the entire nation, we affirm that the entire Party, the entire people and the entire army will unanimously overcome all difficulties and challenges, bringing the country to develop quickly and sustainably in the new era, building a glorious and bright future for the Vietnamese people./.