On the morning of January 9, General Secretary To Lam chaired a meeting with former leaders of the Party and State, exemplary veteran officials, and intellectuals, scientists, and artists from southern provinces and cities. The event was held in Ho Chi Minh City, with the participation of former Politburo members and former Presidents Nguyen Minh Triet and Truong Tan Sang; former Politburo member and former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung; former Politburo member and former Standing member of the Secretariat Le Hong Anh; and former leaders of the Party and State. Also attending were Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Propaganda Department Nguyen Trong Nghia; Politburo member, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen; Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Party Central Committee Office Nguyen Duy Ngoc; representatives of leaders of central and Ho Chi Minh City departments, ministries, branches, agencies.

At the meeting, General Secretary To Lam shared the country's achievements and milestones in 2024 and the main orientations in 2025 so that the entire Party, people and army can enter a new era, an era of national development. In particular, institutional reform, streamlining the apparatus, promoting the application of science and technology, innovation and infrastructure development are the top priorities.

Institutions still have many obstacles to remove

The General Secretary said that 2025 is a very important year for the country. The Party Central Committee has reached a high consensus on determining the basic awareness of the new era, the era of national development, under the leadership and governance of the Communist Party, to successfully build a socialist Vietnam, a rich people, a strong country, democracy, equality and civilization. The top priority in the coming period is to successfully implement the strategic goals by 2030, Vietnam will become a developing country with modern industry and high average income; by 2045 it will become a developed country with high income. Therefore, under the leadership of the Party, the entire people will unite, join hands and make the most of opportunities and advantages, push back risks and challenges, and bring the country to comprehensive and strong development, breakthrough and take off.

In the past, institutional reform has been carried out and will continue in the coming time. According to the General Secretary, there are still many obstacles in the institution, and many regulations need to be removed. Particularly in the issue of streamlining the organizational apparatus, agencies have reported that there are nearly 5,000 legal documents that need to be revised and changed, including nearly 300 laws. "That is very heavy and complicated. If we do not focus on revising these, it will be very difficult, State agencies will be stuck, localities will be stuck, businesses will be stuck, and people will also be stuck when doing procedures," the General Secretary stated. The Party leader said that the National Assembly will meet soon to discuss and remove the above issues. First, four basic laws including the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents, the Law on Organization of the National Assembly, the Law on Organization of the Government, and the Law on Organization of Local Government will be amended. Next, decrees will be issued to resolve overlapping issues in regulations. "The streamlining of the apparatus is the top priority in the coming time. The apparatus must be streamlined to take off, fly high, fly far. If it is too heavy, it will be very difficult," the General Secretary emphasized. Recently, the Central Committee has set an example and taken the lead in this with the direction of reducing from 19 focal agencies to 13 agencies under its authority; the Government has agreed to reduce 5 ministries and 4 affiliated agencies; the National Assembly has also reduced about 5 Committees and upgraded a number of agencies. The streamlining of the apparatus and institutional reform must go hand in hand with a mechanism to closely monitor and control power, to prevent abuse of power. The General Secretary stated that the financial, banking and monetary systems must also be strongly reformed, along with perfecting the legal system, ensuring fairness, civilization, and eliminating current shortcomings.

General Secretary To Lam also shared that over the past year, the work of building the Party and the political system continued to be promoted, inheriting and promoting the important achievements of the previous period. The Party has led the consolidation of the organization, the struggle against ideological degradation and negative manifestations; the apparatus has been streamlined towards effectiveness and efficiency, reducing overlap, and improving management capacity. These are the foundations for improving labor productivity, optimizing resources, and better meeting the requirements of socio-economic development of the country. "The prevention and combat of waste and negativity continues to be a bright spot with determination, comprehensiveness, synchronization, and method. This work contributes to ensuring the strictness of the law, cleaning up the internal affairs, promoting a sense of responsibility throughout the system, improving the business and social environment, and strengthening people's trust in the Party," General Secretary To Lam affirmed.

Wherever the road goes, the socio-economic development goes there.

General Secretary To Lam also shared that our country only has 20 years left to realize the goal of becoming a developed country with high income by 2045. Therefore, this is the starting point for calculations on strategic orientations. The entire people, under the leadership of the Party, need to unite, agree, join hands, and make the most of opportunities and advantages, push back risks and challenges to bring the country to comprehensive, strong, and breakthrough development. "The risk of falling behind has been clearly identified. If we do not develop quickly and sustainably, other countries will continue to develop without waiting for us. The risk of falling behind and the middle-income trap is always lurking if we cannot find a new path and new steps," the General Secretary stated.

At the conference, the General Secretary also shared about the issue of infrastructure development, especially transport infrastructure, which has been identified for a long time. In recent times, the country has achieved many important results such as the synchronous deployment of the expressway network with over 2,000km to strengthen regional connectivity, reduce transportation costs, and enhance national competitiveness. "Wherever the road goes, the socio-economic development will follow, people's lives will be improved, goods will circulate smoothly, land prices will increase, and investors will come. Ho Chi Minh City also has plans to develop belt roads, connecting surrounding provinces. When the development space in a locality is still difficult, the issue of regional and regional connectivity needs to be calculated," General Secretary To Lam directed. In addition to roads, Party leaders also emphasized the development of railway and waterway transport. Recently, the National Assembly highly agreed with the North-South high-speed railway project. "Everyone sees that high-speed railways are a development trend in the world. It will be very difficult for us to develop without high-speed railways. When this railway line is available, the average travel time between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is only 6 hours, which is a great victory. Goods in Ho Chi Minh City tonight can be exported tomorrow, which is much more convenient than by road," said the General Secretary. To meet the double-digit growth target, the General Secretary also mentioned investing heavily in the energy sector. Major investors have warned that if we develop industry and digital technology, our country's current energy sources will not be enough. Meanwhile, our country's potential for wind and solar power is still very large, but it cannot meet the long-term needs. Developing nuclear power is something that needs to be considered. "Previously, we considered developing nuclear power, but stopped because of concerns about safety. Currently, our country has carefully prepared human resources, trained more than 400 students in nuclear industry, nuclear power, nuclear safety, surveyed and has a project. What needs to be done is to choose the cheapest, safest, most modern investor following the world trend," said the General Secretary. With the above major orientations, the General Secretary also affirmed that more than ever, the State and people have great trust in the team of intellectuals and scientists. This team is the pioneers, creating the core for innovation, strong development, towards the goal of rapid and sustainable development of the country in the new period.

The General Secretary hopes that the intellectuals and scientists will strive to fulfill their responsibilities and missions in the new revolutionary period, contributing together with the entire Party, the entire people and the entire army to successfully achieve the country's strategic goals. The intellectuals will train, nurture and help the next generation to progress, becoming a strong driving force for building and defending the Fatherland, contributing to shaping the future of humanity and global civilization; and be a bridge to build a network of domestic and international experts and scientists, overseas Vietnamese intellectuals and foreigners. In addition, the Party and the State always pay special attention to the artists and writers, have issued many resolutions, mechanisms and policies, creating favorable conditions and space for the development of literature and art. The artists and writers are also increasingly mature and growing, making many particularly important contributions to the revolutionary cause of the Party. The General Secretary hopes that in the coming time, artists will contribute and dedicate more by creating works of great significance to the times, with great ideological and artistic value, honoring the values ​​of truth, goodness and beauty, serving the people and the revolutionary cause of the Party and the nation.

Dantri.com.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/tong-bi-thu-tim-buoc-di-moi-tranh-bay-thu-nhap-trung-binh-nguy-co-tut-hau-20250109131556449.htm