President's New Year message: "Short but extremely profound"
Báo Dân trí•15/02/2024
(Dan Tri) - Promoting the strength of great solidarity and good cultural values; unleashing creativity, unleashing resources... are important messages mentioned by the President in his New Year greetings for the Year of the Dragon 2024.
"The message sent by President Vo Van Thuong to all the people on the New Year's Eve of the Year of the Dragon is very brief but extremely profound," said Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc, former Deputy Head of the Committee for Culture and Education, when sharing with Dan Tri reporter. In his New Year's greetings at the moment of transition from the old year of Quy Mao 2023 to the new year of Giap Thin 2024, President Vo Van Thuong emphasized that over the past year, our country has affirmed its new position and new stature of a resilient Vietnam in the face of difficulties, always persistently pursuing good values. The Head of State believes that promoting the strength of national solidarity and the good values of Vietnamese culture and people, promoting dignity, intelligence and unleashing creativity in each individual, liberating potentials, and tapping resources will create great endogenous strength, so that our nation can steadily move forward to achieve even greater achievements.
President Vo Van Thuong sent a message of New Year greetings to all citizens on New Year's Eve (Photo: Nhat Bac).
Unity creates "soft power", endogenous power
Emphasizing the meaning of this message, Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc affirmed the importance of culture. According to him, all periods of development are periods in which culture plays an important role. In periods of peace and prosperity, cultural factors play a key role, and as the ancients often said, in those periods, everywhere in every corner, there are songs, people live a happy life. Nowadays, places that value cultural development become livable places, not only meeting material needs but also improving the spiritual life of the people. Now, modern places are livable places, where there is not only food and clothing or material needs but also spiritual needs. Looking back at the historical process, Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc believes that the leaders as well as the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's policies all promote culture, considering culture as a spiritual foundation of society, a driving force and goal to promote social development. As President Ho Chi Minh once said, "culture lights the way for the nation", "culture exists, the nation exists". Later, when writing about innovation, the late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong also wrote the book "Culture and Innovation", to affirm the leading role and position of culture. "In the message of Tet greetings for the Year of the Dragon, President Vo Van Thuong mentioned culture to mention the history of the nation, to mention the longevity and development of the nation over thousands of years. And the greatest cultural feature, the most characteristic of the Vietnamese people, is solidarity", according to Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc.
High-altitude fireworks display over Saigon River on New Year's Eve (Photo: Hai Long).
Without the spirit of national solidarity, according to Mr. Chuc, the country could not have survived and developed as it is today. "A small country like Vietnam, without the solidarity of millions of people as one, cannot subdue all the invaders and overcome all difficulties. Without the spirit of solidarity, the whole nation cannot fight against natural disasters and enemies," Mr. Chuc emphasized. The clearest evidence of this spirit was demonstrated during the Covid-19 pandemic with unprecedented difficulties. With solidarity from top to bottom, the tradition of mutual love, the healthy leaves covering the torn leaves, Vietnam has successfully controlled the epidemic with the result of "coming later to come first", both fighting the epidemic and recovering and developing the economy. Thanks to that great effort, economic growth in 2023 reached more than 5%, twice the average global GDP, among the top high-growth economies in the world. Exports, especially agricultural exports, set many remarkable records. Trade surplus of over 28 billion USD, disbursement achieved high efficiency. Not only achieving positive results in economic indicators that all tend to be positive, Vietnam also grew remarkably in terms of national brand, making an increasingly high mark in the international arena. According to Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc, looking at the image of a resilient, brave and united Vietnam, friends around the world all feel sympathy and admiration for that spirit. Vietnam's diplomatic position in the past year is the clearest proof of this when many leaders of major powers such as the US and China chose Vietnam as their destination. Many countries around the world also highly appreciate Vietnam's sentiments and responsibility towards the international community, recognizing Vietnam as a friend and trusted partner of countries around the world.
"Preserving cultural identity and promoting national solidarity, in the end, must create practical values, bringing a prosperous and happy life to the people. And more importantly, renewing thinking, together building a prosperous and sustainable country", according to Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc. According to him, the message of President Vo Van Thuong was brief but complete, encapsulating important contents about culture and solidarity because these are the core elements that create soft power, endogenous power in each person and in the whole community. "The short wish with a deep wish of the head of the Vietnamese State sent a message to all people as well as the international community about the aspiration for peace, friendship, cooperation and development", Mr. Chuc said. The policy of putting culture on par with politics and economics was also specified in the resolution of the National Assembly at the recent 6th session. Looking back over the past time, Mr. Chuc said that this policy has changed significantly from the central to local levels, when localities have resolutions on cultural development. Mr. Chuc commented that when the role of culture is placed on par with politics and economics, culture will truly be the foundation and a field that makes society develop sustainably, making people's lives increasingly prosperous and happy.
Unlocking resources to promote development
Also in his New Year message, President Vo Van Thuong mentioned "unleashing creativity in each individual, liberating potentials, and unleashing resources". Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc believes that this is a correct orientation, because as General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has repeatedly said about the spirit of "unanimity from top to bottom, and transparency across the board".
Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc, former Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Education (Photo: Fatherland).
He compared all areas in society to traffic arteries, which must be smooth to operate and develop. To unblock resources in the context of the current unpredictable domestic, regional and world situations, Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc emphasized that party members and officials need to thoroughly understand the spirit of daring to think, daring to do, daring to take responsibility and not being corrupt. People must also understand that in life there are "long fingers and short fingers", in the cadre team there are also good and bad people, so do not look at the reality of many cadres violating and being punished to evaluate the overall picture of the country. Unblocking resources, according to Mr. Chuc, can originate from promoting the progress of infrastructure projects, especially key traffic infrastructure projects invested in the form of public investment, private investment or public-private partnership...
"The Prime Minister, right in the last days of the year and the beginning of the new year, directly inspected and checked a series of key transport projects to speed up progress, and encouraged workers and laborers to work through the night and through Tet to help the projects finish on time. "If investment projects are delayed, society will develop slowly and will not meet the requirements of the new era. Therefore, in the message sent to the people, the head of state believes that everyone, from leaders to people, must be united, share and understand everything, only then will the country develop sustainably," said Dr. Nguyen Viet Chuc.
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