The driving force for Vietnam to rise up in the new era

The history of successful breakthroughs of many countries in the world all have one thing in common, arousing national spirit.

It is a Japan that rose to par with the world's leading powers thanks to its strong will and spirit of solidarity; a Korea that resolutely rose from the ruins of war to become prosperous and developed...

In Vietnam, General Secretary To Lam's "new era" message is inspiring people of all walks of life. On the occasion of the new year 2025, Thanh Nien Newspaper had an interview with Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien (photo) , former Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, about the opportunity to transform "national inspiration" into motivation to "rise up in the new era".

PHOTO: INDEPENDENCE

New momentum

At the present time, I feel an exciting atmosphere, a readiness to enter a "new era" everywhere. Do you feel that mood and how do you explain the "national inspiration" that has been so strongly aroused after a long time?

In 2024, the official entry into force of three laws, including the Land Law (amended), Real Estate Business Law (amended), and Housing Law (amended), will help promote economic development.

PHOTO: NHAT THINH

Now is a rare time of integration - combination - convergence of those factors in the history of national development. We must correctly identify this historic opportunity, "seize" it, and turn it into a worthy process of "growing up - accelerating".

Nothing is impossible! The concept of "the era of rising up", I think, also implies an important meaning that this will be an era of action, but unusual action. Reality shows that if we do not act unusually, it will be difficult for us to overcome ourselves with the "bottleneck of bottlenecks" that has been there for so many years. And it is the commitment to action, not just the beauty of noble goals, that is the decisive factor in creating strong trust in today's society. Finally, I want to say: With such trust, "nothing is impossible". Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien

I also feel the same way: Really excited. The country is having a new spirit of participation, confident and ready. I also think that explaining this "national inspiration" is something that should be done, needs to be done because we have to maintain, promote it, regularly and strongly. Not only on a macro level, but each person also needs to do it to know how they should contribute to that common "career" of national inspiration. Personally, I think of two things. First, self-esteem and national pride are having a starting point at the right level and at the right time.

Second, the message "the bottleneck of bottlenecks" contains the implication of the effort and prospect of releasing the great sources of power of the nation after many years.

Both of these things are very inspiring about the country's opportunities and prospects.

According to you, why does the message of "new era" ignite "national inspiration" and "national spirit" today?

Talking about "new era" means talking about a new era of development, qualitatively different, not any era. It implies a bright prospect, expected for humanity or for a nation. In my opinion, the concept of "new era" of General Secretary To Lam is about the future of Vietnam, a country with strong aspirations and efforts to rise up. More importantly, the introduction of this concept as a development message for the country has breathed new life into the economy, into a society struggling with "bottlenecks" and "obstructions" to move forward, to surpass a new level.

In particular, choosing the right time - the right opportunity to send out the General Secretary's message created "national inspiration", creating the strong conquering power of that message itself.

Can you elaborate on the "right time - right opportunity" that the General Secretary chose to send out the "new era" message?

Firstly, the spirit of the message is consistent with the strong and unusual dual transformation trend of the world and the times: From "brown" to "green"; from "physical economy" to "digital economy", from the level of "manual labor" to the era of intellectual and creative domination, with the outstanding characteristics of high speed and unprecedented spread. Vietnam, together with humanity, has entered the "Age of Light". I use the term "Age of Light" again to recall the historical milestone - marking humanity's escape from the "dark ages of the Middle Ages" several centuries ago.

Back to the present, we all see that Vietnam is behind and still poor, but has entered the development trajectory of humanity, with a high level of readiness and spirit of openness and integration. With the advantage of being behind, Vietnam must turn the human era into an opportunity for its own development.

Second, on subjective conditions. Vietnam has gone through nearly 40 years of renovation, with great successes, creating position and strength, establishing strong development momentum, affirming the irreversible trend of the chosen path. On the contrary, those 40 years have also helped reveal the problems and weaknesses that the economy and the country must overcome, especially in the global competition, when the position is still lagging behind; the economy still faces the risk of falling into the "middle income trap"; society has not yet reached the level of civilization - modernity. Therefore, we must "strive" to overcome ourselves, right from this moment, no later. This is an important point that General Secretary To Lam mentioned. It not only shows the urgency but also, more than that, the life-and-death level of solving the problem.

In particular, the historical opportunism is clearly demonstrated when the change in the country's leadership does not cause any doubts, worries or concerns. On the contrary, the change helps to strengthen political and social stability, promote and consolidate the trust of the entire nation in the Party and the State. It evokes the heroic spirit of innovation of 40 years ago and conveys a particularly strong inspiration about the aspiration to "keep up - keep up" and feasibility. In that sense, it helps to renew confidence, creating a new, unusual driving force for development to overcome new, unprecedented challenges.

Our Party is about to hold its 14th National Congress. The General Secretary's presentation of new development ideas, guiding messages and strategic solutions will help the Party promptly supplement, adjust, renew and shape its viewpoints, guidelines and development strategies for the country's hopeful future.

If we don't do it in time, I'm afraid "tomorrow will be too late". I especially appreciate seizing this historic moment of opportunity.

Reality shows that national spirit has helped many countries achieve breakthrough success. When talking about Vietnamese national spirit, each of us immediately thinks of the heroic history of building and defending the country. At present, national spirit is expected to help Vietnam "rise up" in a new era of success...

Striving to "keep up with the times" and "stand shoulder to shoulder with the world powers" is the common requirement of a nation that knows how to respect itself in development. It ignites and shines the spirit of national pride. These noble qualities and sentiments have been a strong driving force for many nations and peoples to rise up. What is the foundation and basis of "national pride and self-respect"? It is to strive to build an independent country (assuming freedom) and a self-reliant and self-reliant economy. These tasks, as history shows, have always been the top challenges for our country.

Now, Vietnam must continue to promote that spirit, which is latent in the blood of every citizen. The call to "Strengthen oneself" I think opens the way for our country to "catch up - stand shoulder to shoulder" in the new period.

After the successful Doi Moi in 1986, the Vietnamese economy, as you just mentioned, has revealed many weaknesses. So at this point, what makes you think we will "catch up - stand shoulder to shoulder" with the world powers - the aspiration for prosperity that has been nurtured for generations by our people?

Double-digit growth in export turnover contributed to a historic import-export turnover of nearly 800 billion USD.

PHOTO: DAO NGOC THACH

For many years, we have pointed out "three strategic bottlenecks". However, it was not until recently that General Secretary To Lam mentioned the concept of "bottlenecks of bottlenecks". The approach of considering institutions as "bottlenecks of bottlenecks", "fighting waste like fighting internal invaders", proposing the implementation of the mechanism of "local self-determination, self-doing, self-responsibility", or recently, drastically rearranging the national administrative apparatus will help us to re-identify the system of problems that have been lingering for many years.

On that basis, it is feasible to solve it. The positive attitude of the whole society towards such an approach is a strong proof of its feasibility.

However, I would like to note that solving the "bottleneck of bottlenecks" is only part of the development story that Vietnam is facing. That is the "getting rid of the old" part - to help the economy and the country overcome the constraints and obstacles of the historical and operating system. That is not the institutional system needed for, commensurate with, the "new era". To have a "new era", we must overcome the old institutional system, but more importantly, build a new institutional system, truly for the new era.

Just focusing on the past to overcome it, although correct, is not enough, very not enough. We must prepare an institutional system for the future, for the "new era" that is coming very quickly, with an uncompromising logic of speed and time.

This is a genuine challenge - worthy of this country's rising aspirations.

Historic opportunity

With that approach, how do you evaluate the opportunity for Vietnam to make this historic "rise"?

This issue needs to be thoroughly studied to be answered correctly and fully. Here, I would like to briefly mention a few points.

Firstly, the Global - Era transition allows Vietnam, a latecomer, to have the opportunity to advance, according to the non-linear principle. Vietnam can - and we are - moving straight into the high-tech era, the digital technology era, the era of creative intelligence, and artificial intelligence even when the classical industrialization process has not yet been completed.

Second, Vietnam has the advantage of being a latecomer to make the effort to surpass become feasible and realistic.

Third, after 40 years of renovation, Vietnam has built a necessary development force, and has established a positive and solid development position and momentum. These are factors that, if developed, will become strong driving forces. They help turn potential advantages and aspirations into resources with great resonance power.

Fourth, with the open-door - open integration policy, with the spirit of "sharing risks, harmonizing interests" of a responsible country, Vietnam is gaining increasingly large and effective support from the world. Vietnam's connection with the world is "reaching the level" of strategic partnership not only with the great powers but especially with many of the world's leading technology corporations and powerful global supply chains.

Fifth, and most importantly, is the consensus and cohesion of the rising national strength, which is being promoted by valuable actions that "turn history" by the Party and State.

There are many other favorable and opportunistic factors that can be mentioned. However, what needs to be emphasized is that this is a rare time in the history of the country's development when these factors are integrated, combined, and converged. We must correctly identify this historic opportunity, "seize" it, and turn it into a worthy "growing - accelerating" process.

Along with opportunities, there are always challenges. I think the nature of the process of self-development is also a big challenge. What challenges will Vietnam face in this era of self-development, in your opinion?

Indeed, the nature of the process of self-development is an unprecedented challenge. Even the rare opportunities mentioned above, before being realized into development benefits, contain the risk of "turning into challenges". The higher the goal, the more difficult the task.

In a strong rising state, there is always the possibility of ignoring or underestimating challenges, leading to paranoia. Combined with the "communist arrogance" attitude - as the General Secretary warned, there will be an incorrect, incomplete, or even distorted assessment of risks and challenges.

But we must always remember that the current strength of Vietnam's domestic economy is still very weak. Up to 50 - 60% of the national GDP is produced by the weakest and least efficient economic sectors. Meanwhile, Vietnam's business force is facing many difficulties and is still being discriminated against. Not to mention low-quality human resources, a national administrative apparatus that is not "up to par", an economic structure that is still unbalanced and has many weaknesses, market institutions that are still quite underdeveloped, and a strong request-grant mechanism...

Not to mention the increasing risks arising from the modern economy, the obstacles to its development are also constantly increasing.

With such weaknesses, "opportunities turning into challenges" are not imaginary. They need to be warned so that the most serious preparations can be made to overcome them.

If you consider this the second renovation, how do you envision Vietnam in the new era?

I think the major goals that the 13th Congress has set out allow us to visualize the basic features of the portrait, including: Culture, civilization, prosperity, democracy, and happiness. The quantitative goals also clearly demonstrate the specific aspirations of becoming a developed, high-income country...

Recently, that portrait has been supplemented with very large and new depictions such as green development, digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) power and semiconductor chips... It is important to note that these depictions are all national formats with very strong political and international commitments. Surely the upcoming 14th Congress will shape the national strategic guidelines and framework with these new, large and concretized development lines.

I want to emphasize commitment here, which means "to do it for real", "not just talk", not letting good goals exist as distant dreams. It means the reliable reality of the country's portrait. It also means the responsible approach of the Party and State towards the people and the country.

That explains why people's confidence in the country's future is growing strongly. Because they believe in the reality of their own future.

Thanhnien.vn

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/dong-luc-de-viet-nam-vuon-minh-trong-ky-nguyen-moi-185241231222332395.htm