On August 25, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and the working delegation visited and worked with the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and key officials of Lang Son province on the implementation of the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the Resolution of the 17th Provincial Party Congress, term 2020 - 2025.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong works with the Standing Committee and key leaders of Lang Son province. Photo: Tri Dung/VNA

Accompanying General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong were Politburo members: Minister of Public Security To Lam, Minister of National Defense Phan Van Giang; Party Central Committee Secretaries: Chief of the Central Office Le Minh Hung, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Do Van Chien, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai; Party Central Committee members: Head of the Central External Relations Commission Le Hoai Trung, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, Deputy Chief of the Party Central Office Lam Thi Phuong Thanh, Commander of Military Region 1, Lieutenant General Nguyen Hong Thai and representatives of central departments, ministries and branches.

Many outstanding results

Lang Son is a gateway land, the headland of the Fatherland, with a long history of formation and development; always holding an important strategic position in politics, economy, culture, national defense, security and foreign affairs of the country.

Reporting on the outstanding work results from the beginning of the 2020-2025 term to date, Party Central Committee member, Secretary of Lang Son Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Quoc Doan said that from the beginning of the term, Lang Son Provincial Party Committee issued an Action Program, focusing on 7 key work programs, 3 breakthroughs to effectively lead, direct and organize the implementation of the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the Resolution of the 17th Provincial Party Congress.

Regarding the work of Party building and political system building, the province continues to strictly direct the implementation of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW and Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW dated October 25, 2017 of the 12th Party Central Committee and Resolution No. 37-NQ/TW dated December 24, 2018 of the Politburo. Up to now, two provincial-level units, 54 provincial-level departments and offices and equivalents, 21 departments and 81 district-level public service units have been reduced. In the 2019-2021 period, 51 commune-level administrative units will be reorganized, reducing 26 units. From now until 2030, implementing Conclusion No. 48-KL/TW dated January 30, 2023 of the Politburo, Resolution No. 35/2023/UBTVQH15 dated July 12, 2023 of the National Assembly Standing Committee, Lang Son will continue to rearrange and reduce 12 more commune-level administrative units. For villages and residential groups, the province has directed the rearrangement to reduce from 2,314 villages and residential groups (in 2017) to 1,658 villages and residential groups (reducing 656 villages and residential groups).

Since the beginning of the 2020-2025 term, Party committees and Inspection Committees at all levels have inspected and supervised 3,006 Party organizations and 6,234 Party members. Of which, inspections when there were signs of violations increased by 235% of organizations compared to the same period, and by 27.16% of Party members compared to the previous term. At the provincial level alone, there was an increase of 262.5% of organizations and 416% of Party members compared to the previous term.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at a working session with key leaders of Lang Son province. Photo: Tri Dung/VNA

Since its establishment, the Provincial Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption and Negativity has directed, detected, and handled 22 cases and 113 defendants and accused of corruption and negativity, of which 11 cases and 3 incidents were directly monitored and directed by the Steering Committee.

Party development work is focused on, annually recruiting over 2,100 party members, exceeding by about 9% the target set by the Resolution of the 17th Provincial Party Congress, bringing the total number of party members of the entire Provincial Party Committee to 69,218.

The Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations continue to innovate in content and methods, improve the quality and effectiveness of their operations, and effectively perform their role of social supervision and criticism.

The province's economic, cultural and social situation has had many positive changes. Lang Son is the first province in the country to successfully deploy the "Digital Border Gate"; apply "Digital Citizen of Lang Son". Up to now, Lang Son's provincial competitiveness index in 2022 has ranked 15th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide; ranked 6th nationwide in digital transformation. Notably, in 2022, the province ranked 2nd in the group of 3 leading provinces nationwide in terms of Provincial Green Index (PGI). Thanks to that, Lang Son's economy has had positive changes, with a relatively high and continuous growth rate.

Political and social stability; national defense and security are firmly ensured. The average economic growth rate (GRDP) in the period of 2021 - 2022 reached 6.95% (in 2021 it reached 6.67%, in 2022 it reached 7.22%), 1.5% higher than the average in the period of 2015 - 2020. Average income per capita in the period of 2021 - 2022 reached 49.26 million VND (in 2021 it reached 46.8 million VND, in 2022 it reached 51.72 million VND), 29.3% higher than the period of 2015 - 2020. By the end of the first quarter of 2023, 96 communes had met new rural standards, including 22 advanced new rural communes and 4 model new rural communes. The rate of rural population using hygienic water in 2023 will reach 98%, an increase of 3% compared to 2020.

The cultural and social fields have made much progress, achieving many high-ranking indicators nationwide. The quality of education and training has changed significantly. By 2023, the whole province had 272/670 schools meeting national standards. The province has completed the target of 200 communes, wards and towns meeting the National Criteria for Commune Health, with an average of 11.2 doctors and 32.9 hospital beds per 10,000 people. The rate of people participating in health insurance reached 90.8%.

Ethnic and religious affairs are constantly focused on and strengthened. The historical, cultural and human potentials of Lang Son are awakened and promoted. Many historical, cultural and revolutionary relics are preserved and invested in; contributing more and more to socio-economic development.

National defense, security, order and social safety are ensured; national border security and sovereignty are maintained, avoiding passive and unexpected situations. Building a peaceful, friendly, stable and developing border. International economic integration and cooperation are increasingly deepened. Actively and proactively building Lang Son into a solid defense and security area. Foreign affairs activities are focused on expanding. Party foreign affairs, State diplomacy and people's foreign affairs are increasingly going into depth, contributing positively to the overall foreign affairs achievements of the whole country.

In addition to the achieved results, the Mid-term Review Report of the Provincial Party Committee frankly pointed out the shortcomings and limitations such as: The economic scale of the province is still small; development is not commensurate with the potential, advantages and development space of the province. The quality of poverty reduction and sustainable poverty reduction still has many difficulties, especially in remote, mountainous and ethnic minority areas... The leadership capacity of the Party organization in some places has not met the requirements. A number of cadres and Party members still have limitations in capacity and qualifications; are not exemplary, lack a sense of responsibility, even violate discipline and the law. The political security, order and social safety situation is sometimes and in some places complicated, especially border security, rural security, there are still situations of mass complaints...

Building Lang Son homeland to become more and more developed, rich, beautiful and civilized

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong speaks at a working session with the Standing Committee and key officials of Lang Son province. Photo: Tri Dung/VNA

After listening to the opinions and concluding the working session, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong congratulated and commended the efforts, striving, results and achievements that the Party Committee, Government and people of Lang Son province have achieved, especially in recent years.

Regarding the future direction, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong noted that Lang Son Party Committee needs to have a more complete and profound understanding of the general situation and context, the advantages and difficulties of a mountainous and border province that has developed from agriculture and forestry, but also has a lot of potential and favorable conditions for economic development, thereby setting out goals, requirements, identifying key tasks and breakthroughs. The province needs to focus on leadership and direction, creating new and stronger changes in socio-economic development.

The province needs to clearly identify that developing the border gate economy is not only to develop the province's economy but more importantly to contribute to the economic development of the whole country, especially the northern provinces, while strengthening the friendly and trusting neighborly relationship with China.

Emphasizing that Lang Son is a land that is both poetic and lyrical, with a very diverse and rich culture with unique and rare characteristics, the General Secretary emphasized the need to more closely and harmoniously combine economic development with cultural and social development. All of those strengths and potentials need to be exploited and promoted, with the spirit of taking the people as the center, thereby effectively solving social problems, constantly improving the material and spiritual life of the people.

The General Secretary noted that the province needs to continue to pay attention to innovation, improve the quality of education and training, the quality of care and protection of people's health; lead vocational training and job creation, especially for human resources in rural, mountainous areas, and areas where many new investment projects are being implemented. The province needs to well implement policies and regimes for people with meritorious services, ethnic minorities, social security issues and sustainable poverty reduction; so that the lives of policy families, people with meritorious services, poor households, and ethnic minorities in remote and isolated areas are increasingly improved and enhanced.

The General Secretary pointed out that it is necessary to focus on prioritizing human resource development according to the major orientations set forth by the 17th Provincial Party Congress; paying special attention to focusing on doing a good job in personnel work. Having a systematic plan, training and fostering, both for the short and long term; proactively proposing mechanisms and policies, strengthening coordination with other provinces and central ministries and branches to mobilize the highest and most effectively use resources for development investment.

The province clearly identifies its role, position, potential and strengths in the Northern Midlands and Mountains region, the Red River Delta region and the Hanoi Capital region; attaches importance to regional linkages to create momentum for development; builds Lang Son to develop rapidly and sustainably, with synchronous infrastructure, and soon become a province with modern services, agriculture and industry.

With the responsibility of being a "national fence" in terms of defense and security, and at the same time an "economic fence", firmly protecting the domestic market is also protecting the country's sovereignty and economic security, the General Secretary stated that Lang Son must pay special attention to building and consolidating the national defense associated with the people's security posture; closely combining socio-economic development with consolidating national defense and security, building a solid defense zone.

The province effectively implements ethnic and religious policies, ensures political security, social order and safety, maintains national border sovereignty, builds a peaceful, friendly, cooperative, stable and developing border; proactively and effectively carries out foreign affairs and international integration, creating a favorable environment for socio-economic development of the province, the midland and mountainous regions of the North and the whole country.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong speaks at a working session with the Standing Committee and key officials of Lang Son province. Photo: Tri Dung/VNA

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong requested that the province should take full care of and do better in the work of building and rectifying the Party and the political system; especially promoting democracy and the strength of the great national unity bloc, first of all, internal unity within Party committees and authorities at all levels, and especially unity within the Provincial Party Committee, the Standing Committee, and the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, thereby spreading and creating high unity and consensus among the people, building an increasingly solid great national unity bloc.

Continuously innovate the leadership methods of Party committees at all levels, build a truly clean and strong Party and political system in accordance with the spirit of Resolution 4 of the 12th Central Committee and Conclusion No. 21-KL/TW of the 13th Central Committee's 4th Conference on promoting the building and rectification of a truly clean and strong Party and political system.

Resolutely prevent and repel negative phenomena; strictly handle cadres and party members who have degraded political ideology, morality, lifestyle, and manifested "self-evolution" and "self-transformation", while protecting cadres and party members who dare to think, speak, act, and take responsibility for the common good. Strictly implement Regulation No. 37-QD/TW on "Things Party members must not do", in conjunction with continuing to implement Directive No. 05-CT/TW of the Politburo on "Studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality, and lifestyle".

Regarding Lang Son's recommendations and proposals, the General Secretary requested that the Central Party Office synthesize and send them to relevant departments, ministries and branches according to their functions, authority and tasks; promptly study, consider and work directly with the province to resolve them specifically in the spirit of creating the best conditions for Lang Son to develop more quickly and sustainably.

With the glorious historical, cultural and revolutionary traditions of the homeland on the rise; together with the will of self-reliance, self-strengthening, strong aspirations to rise up, the dynamic and creative spirit, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong hopes that the Party Committee, government and people of Lang Son will continue to unite, join hands, be unanimous, and determined to further promote the innovation process, strive to exceed and comprehensively fulfill the targets and tasks set forth by the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the 17th Provincial Party Congress, building Lang Son homeland to become increasingly developed, rich, beautiful and civilized; the people will have a prosperous, joyful and happy life.

According to VNA