Vietnam News Agency (VNA) respectfully introduces the full text of the speech of General Secretary and President To Lam at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Party's 14th National Congress Document Subcommittee:

Dear comrades,

The passing of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, an exceptionally outstanding leader, thinker, and theoretical flag bearer of the Party, is a great and irreplaceable loss for our entire Party, people, and army. In commemorating Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong, honoring and expressing gratitude for his great contributions and dedication, we are fully aware of our great responsibility to join the entire Party, people, and army in striving to successfully implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress. At the same time, we are making the best preparations for the 14th National Party Congress, including preparing the Congress documents, considering this a very important task to summarize and evaluate the results and achievements during the 13th tenure and 40 years of renovation, along with the causes and lessons learned, thereby planning and clearly defining the vision and steps to bring our country to rapid and sustainable development in the coming time to 2030 with a vision to 2045.

Dear comrades!

There is not much time left until the 14th National Congress of the Party, the work is very busy. Preliminary review of the preparations for the 10th Central Conference of the 13th tenure, according to the report of the Central Party Office, many tasks are behind schedule. Therefore, the key leaders and the Politburo have agreed that from now until the end of the year, we will focus on prioritizing the resolution of the group of projects submitted to the 10th Central Conference and the group of projects that need to focus on removing difficulties for socio-economic development. I request the Standing Committee of the Subcommittee and the Document Editorial Team to review the assigned tasks, first of all the contents submitted to the 10th Central Conference, to focus on preparation to ensure quality and progress. In order to best prepare the draft documents for the 14th Party Congress, on the basis of continuing to thoroughly grasp the guiding ideology of the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, I would like to discuss and emphasize with you the following 2 contents:

Firstly, it is necessary to unify the perception of the new historical starting point, the new era, the era of the Vietnamese people's rise, from which there will be stronger innovations in the form and content of documents.

The 14th National Congress of the Party will take place at a very meaningful time, after 40 years of carrying out the renovation process, 35 years of implementing the Platform for national construction in the transitional period to socialism, 5 years of implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Congress of the Party with many turning-point results and outstanding marks. The position and strength of the country, Vietnam's prestige in the international arena are constantly increasing; the Party's will and the people's hearts are fused in the aspiration to build a prosperous and happy country, to soon successfully build socialism, to stand shoulder to shoulder with the world powers, and first of all, to successfully implement the Party's resolutions.

The 14th Congress has the task of reviewing in depth the implementation of the Resolution of the 13th Congress, summarizing 40 years of carrying out the cause of national renewal in the direction of socialism, reviewing the leadership of the 13th Central Executive Committee, reviewing the work of Party building and the implementation of the 13th Party Charter; electing the 14th Central Executive Committee of the Party to meet the requirements and tasks of building and defending the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam in the new situation. At the same time, inheriting important theoretical achievements on socialism and the path to socialism in Vietnam that have been summarized by generations of Party leaders, including General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, to supplement, perfect, and more accurately and clearly plan the path of renewal and the path to socialism in the new era; determine the direction, goals and tasks of the entire Party, people and army in the next 5 years (2026 - 2030), striving to soon reach the goal of successfully implementing the 10-year Socio-Economic Development Strategy (2021 - 2030).

The 14th Congress will be an important milestone, a new milestone on the development path of our country and people, with the meaning of orienting the future; strongly arousing tradition, patriotism, national pride, confidence, self-reliance, self-strengthening, clearly demonstrating the will, spirit and quintessence of Vietnam; encouraging, cheering, motivating our entire Party, people and army to continue to firmly follow the path to socialism, affirming that this is the right and creative choice, in line with Vietnam's reality and the development trend of the times; strongly promoting position and strength, continuing to comprehensively and synchronously promote the renovation process, firmly protecting the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, striving to soon complete the 100-year strategic goals under the leadership of the Party, the 100-year founding of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Second, regarding document drafting, I propose to thoroughly understand and unify a number of issues regarding principles, mottos, ideological methods, guiding viewpoints and methods as follows:

Firstly, unifying the perception of a number of major issues, as follows: (i) Documents are the "torches that light the way" for us to go, must ensure the crystallization of all the quintessence and values ​​of the past, present and future; must ensure the principles: the Party leads and governs; the interests of the nation, people, prosperity and happiness of the People are above all, first. (ii) Documents should not be too long, must be highly directional so that Party committees at all levels and all Party members must absorb and implement. (iii) Summarizing 40 years of innovation is a very necessary task that must be done very urgently with a huge investment of effort and intelligence so that it can be filtered and included in the content of the documents. (iv) Must focus on completing documents with quality, meeting the requirements of organizing Party Congresses at all levels towards the 14th Party Congress in the first quarter of 2026. The Standing Committee of the Subcommittee and the Editorial Team must be "unanimous from top to bottom, consistent throughout" in the process of drafting documents.

Second, firmly adhere to the principled guiding viewpoints; conduct theoretical research based on summarizing practices, standing on the ground of Vietnamese practice to determine methods for the Vietnamese Revolution in the new era.

- Firmly adhere to the principled guiding viewpoints: Firmly adhere to and creatively apply and develop Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought; firmly adhere to the goals of national independence and socialism; firmly adhere to the Party's innovation policy; firmly adhere to the principles of Party building to firmly build and defend the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.

- Continue to thoroughly grasp the guiding viewpoints of the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the Standing Meeting of the Steering Committee for Documents of the 14th National Congress on February 23, 2024, closely and scientifically combining the Party's ideological foundation, ideal goals, and guidelines with the spirit of constant innovation, creativity, and compliance with objective laws; steadfastness goes hand in hand with innovation; steadfastness in a creative way, steadfast creativity according to Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary method; innovation must be principled, not arbitrary or hasty, both cautious and thorough, but not too perfectionist, causing loss of opportunities.

- Building the documents of the 14th Party Congress is a process of summarizing practice, studying theory, analyzing and forecasting the future. The implementation must be based on the worldview and methodology of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought; thoroughly grasping the objective, comprehensive, stable and developing, practical and historical - specific viewpoints. The task of summarizing is to clarify new results, new ways of doing things, and established foundations; to discover and explore emerging policies, tasks, and solutions that have vitality from practice, from new factors of practice; policies and strategies that are confirmed by practice to be correct, appropriate, or need to continue to be innovated, supplemented, and developed; requirements, clearly identifying aspirations, visions, orientations, and major solutions, in line with the new situation, bringing the country to develop faster and more sustainably in the new development stage when the position and strength are at a new height.

- The political report of this National Party Congress must be a scientific work that crystallizes the theoretical level, intellectual height of the entire Party, the faith and aspirations of the entire nation, reflects the objective laws of reality, new trends of reality; takes reality as a measure to test the truth, grasps the trends of the times to create new development momentum.

Third, the content of the document must ensure the highest promotion of the spirit of "self-reliance, self-confidence, self-reliance, self-strengthening, and national pride"; constantly strengthening solidarity and unity within the Party, great national solidarity; linking ideology and action, Party will and people's hearts; making the most of opportunities and advantages, minimizing risks and challenges, opening up new development prospects, expanding living space, building a strong Communist Party of Vietnam, a rich, democratic, fair, and civilized Vietnam, and a prosperous and happy life for the Vietnamese people.

The content of the document must demonstrate that the 13th term of the Party has passed 2/3 of the way, under the wise and close leadership of the Party Central Committee, directly and regularly by the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the core leader being the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong; the participation of the entire Party, the entire people and the entire army with the spirit of "Proactively supporting the rear", "One call, all respond", "Unanimity from top to bottom", "Smooth operation across the country"; focusing on implementing 12 orientations for national development, 3 strategic breakthroughs, 6 key tasks, has brought our country to overcome all difficulties, challenges, many issues beyond forecast, unprecedented, achieving many important achievements, increasing the strength and determination of the entire Party, the entire people and the entire army on the new strong development path on the path of building socialism.

The 14th National Party Congress takes place in the context of the world in a period of epochal change; opportunities and advantages go hand in hand with risks, challenges, big waves and strong winds. With the position and strength accumulated after 40 years of renovation, with the consensus and joint efforts of the entire Party, the entire people and the entire army, with new opportunities and advantages, under the wise leadership of the Party, Vietnam has all the necessary conditions and the 14th National Party Congress must set out directions, solutions and strategic orientations to liberate all productive forces, maximize internal resources, take advantage of external resources, take internal resources, human resources as the foundation, and scientific and technological resources as a breakthrough to help the country develop and take off in the following years. At the same time, it is necessary to clearly identify a number of major orientations, namely:

- Resolutely developing socio-economy is the center, Party building is the key, cultural development is the foundation, ensuring national defense and security and promoting foreign affairs are essential and regular.

- Uphold independence and autonomy; ensure the highest national and ethnic interests on the basis of fundamental principles of international law; firmly protect the socialist Fatherland early and from afar; resolutely and persistently firmly protect the independence, sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity, sea, islands and airspace of the Fatherland.

- Persistently pursue an independent, self-reliant, multilateral, and diversified foreign policy; be a friend, a reliable partner, and an active and responsible member of the international community; firmly maintain the stance, viewpoint, and practice of the art of diplomacy in the new era based on the Vietnamese character of “Responding to all changes with unchangeability,” “peaceful and filial piety,” “replacing violence with benevolence”; maintain a peaceful and stable environment for national development; and enhance Vietnam’s practical contributions to maintaining peace in the region and the world.

- Firmly uphold the stance, viewpoint and practice of “People are the root”, “People are the subject and center of the innovation process”; all policies and strategies must truly originate from the lives, aspirations, rights and legitimate interests of the People, taking the happiness and prosperity of the People as the goal to strive for; ensuring that all people enjoy the fruits of innovation and development, live happily in a secure and safe environment, with no one left behind.

- Building a socialist rule-of-law state of the people, by the people, for the people, led by the Communist Party of Vietnam; upholding the Constitution and the law; respecting, ensuring, and effectively protecting human rights and citizens' rights; having a professional, rule-of-law, and modern administration and judiciary; a streamlined, clean, and effective state apparatus; a contingent of cadres, civil servants, and public employees with adequate qualities, capacity, and prestige, devoting all their heart and soul to serving the Fatherland and the people.

- Comprehensively and synchronously promote the innovation process, develop the country rapidly and sustainably, and consolidate national potential. Build and synchronously perfect the country's development institutions, especially the institutions for developing a modern, integrated socialist-oriented market economy; maximize social resources mobilization for the cause of sustainable national development, environmental protection, and adaptation to climate change. Comprehensively develop human beings; build an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity, which is truly the foundation for development, an endogenous strength, and an important driving force for national development.

- Expanding development space, strongly promoting investment, production and business activities by focusing on removing difficulties and obstacles in development institutions; continuing to promote administrative procedure reform; enhancing publicity and transparency through digital transformation; creating the highest convenience for all normal activities within the legal framework, contributing to national construction, improving the lives of the people, organizations, individuals, businesses and entrepreneurs at home and abroad.

- Continuously strengthen solidarity, unity and democratic centralism within the Party, the great national solidarity, and the close bond between the Party and the People. Mobilize the intelligence and strength of the entire nation to successfully achieve strategic goals. Continue to promote Party building and rectification; resolutely and persistently prevent and combat corruption and negativity with the motto of "continuously" and "without rest", bringing the fight against "internal invaders" to complete victory; build our Party to be truly clean and strong, "ethical and civilized".

Dear comrades!

Building the Congress documents is an extremely important task, not only ensuring the success of the Congress, but also designing the overall path forward for the country and the Vietnamese Revolution in the new era, with the meaning of shortening the path to socialism, soon achieving the aspirations of President Ho Chi Minh and our entire nation.

Documents are collective works, collective intelligence and you comrades are the "nucleus" to carry out that task; the responsibility is great, noble and glorious, therefore we must strive, devote all our heart and strength, ensure close coordination between the Document Subcommittee and other Subcommittees; mobilize the intelligence of the entire Party, the entire people, the entire army, intellectuals, experts, researchers, managers; exploit and filter the results of scientific research at home and abroad.

The process of drafting documents must ensure continuity and development; closely follow the principles, mottos, ideological methods, guiding viewpoints and agreed methods; discuss truly democratically, thoroughly, consider many aspects, need to be open-minded, listen, respect each other's opinions, find the truth together, create high unity, especially on new and difficult issues. It is necessary to ensure that the Political Report must be the central report, must be placed at the level of major viewpoints, guidelines and policies; the Party building report and the socio-economic report are thematic reports, ensuring no overlap; be consistent in the Party's viewpoints and policies on Party building and national development in the period of 2026 - 2030 and vision to 2045, contributing to continuing to supplement and develop our Party's theoretical awareness of socialism and the path to socialism in our country.

Dear comrades,

In the coming time, the work of the Subcommittee and the Standing Committee of the Subcommittee will be very much and very difficult, requiring great effort, concentration and hard work. We request that the Standing Committee of the Subcommittee and the Standing Committee of the Editorial Board spend adequate time and effort and have a very scientific working method, maintain close relationships with the Subcommittees and Standing Committees of the Editorial Boards of other Subcommittees to complete the work with high quality and on schedule.

Finally, I would like to sincerely thank and wish you good health.