Party General Secretary To Lam’s speech at opening of 13th plenum of 13th Party Central Committee
WVR - On the morning of October 6, the 13th plenum of the 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party solemnly commenced in Hanoi. The World and Vietnam Report is honoured to present the translation of the opening speech by Party General Secretary To Lam at the event.
Latest
 |
| General Secretary To Lam delivers the opening speech at the Plenum. (Source: Nhan dan Newspaper) |
Dear members of the Political Bureau, the Secretariat, and the Party Central Committee
Distinguished delegates,
Today, the 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party opens its 13th Plenum amidst a rising revolutionary spirit, with the people's confidence increasingly reinforced as the entire Party, people, and army recently celebrated the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day on September 2.
The socio-economic indicators over the past nine months have surpassed those of the same period in 2024 across most sectors; the two-tier local government model generally operates smoothly; public services continue to improve with a focus on citizens and businesses.
The development space post-national master planning is mutually supportive; regional economies are more clearly defined, transforming into new competitive advantages. Seven strategic resolutions issued by the Politburo over the past year are paving the way for practical, steady steps towards maintaining peace, stability, rapid and sustainable development, improving the real living standards of the people, and realizing the two centenary goals set by our Party, which the people eagerly anticipate.
With courage, intelligence, and proactive creativity, we have fundamentally restrained and resolved complex political competition pressures, promptly responded to new trade policies from major partners, supply chain disruptions, trade conflicts, natural disasters, epidemics, and hostile activities...
Our Party has “steered the ship through stormy seas,” steadfastly moving forward, striving to achieve and exceed the goals set by the 13th Party Congress and other strategic objectives outlined by the Party.
On behalf of the Politburo and the Secretariat, I warmly welcome members of the Party Central Committee and invited delegates, acknowledging and highly appreciating the efforts and achievements of all comrades in recent times; I wish you all health, happiness, and success.
Dear comrades,
According to the working regulations of the Party Central Committee, the Plenum's Organizing Committee has sent all content and working programs to the comrades for review, and you have just agreed on the program and content of the 13th Plenum .
I am confident that with the responsibility and awareness of Party members, the Party Central Committee members will focus their spirit and intellect to make practical contributions to the success of the Conference.
I would like to emphasize some key points among the Conference's content as a guide for the comrades to study, consider, contribute opinions, and exercise the rights of Party members and the responsibilities of members of the Party Central Committee at this session.
 |
| Overview of the opening session of the 13th plenum of the 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party. (Source: Nhan dâa Newspaper) |
I- Group of issues regarding preparation for the 14th National Party Congress:
1- Regarding personnel work for the Congress:
Following Conclusion No. 180 issued on July 25, 2025 by the Party Central Committee regarding the orientations of personnel planning for the 14th Party Central Committee, and the Politburo and the Personnel Sub‑Committee’s notice on candidates for both official and alternate membership, including re-elected and first-time members, by August 20, 2025, all Party Committees and Party Organisations had nominated their candidates for the 14th Party Central Committee and submitted them to the Personnel Sub‑Committee. Based on these nominations and the results of appraisal, inspection, verification and supplemental conclusions by authorised agencies, the Politburo conducted a comprehensive evaluation, agreed on the candidate list, and carried out the official ballot voting in line with regulations. Simultaneously, the Politburo also conducted voting for candidates to the 14th Party Central Committee’s Inspection Commission (re-elected and first-time members).
At this meeting, the Politburo will present to the Party Central Committee for comments the proposal on results and the candidate introducing plan for the 14th Party Central Committee and the 14th Inspection Commission, and then proceed with the voting to recommend the candidates according to regulations.
This is a matter of “extreme importance,” “key of the key,” a decisive factor for the success of the 14th National Party Congress and the development of the country in the coming period. I recommend that, when selecting candidates, comrades must base their selection on the standards, conditions, structure, and quantity according to the personnel work direction of the 14th National Party Congress and related regulations. The interests of the Party, the nation, and the people must be placed above all else. It is necessary to maintain balance and harmony between standards and structure; between continuity, stability, and development; between general applicability and particularity; between formal qualifications and individual strengths, practical capabilities; and between reputation, work experience, and developmental potential, with special priority on quality, effectiveness, work product, and the dedication of officials as criteria and measures in selection. The fundamental requirements in personnel selection are: qualities -capabilities - reputation - integrity - effectiveness; the courage to think, to act, and to take responsibility for the interests of the nation and the people; being close to the people, engaging with the people, and working for the people. In the current new revolutionary period, great emphasis is placed on the factors of “Virtue – Capacity - Talent.” It is absolutely essential to prevent the infiltration of individuals who seek positions or power through opportunism or factionalism into the Party Central Committee. Regarding personnel for the Party Central Committee’s Inspection Commission, it is necessary to select and recommend comrades who are mettled, impartial, well-versed in the law, proficient in their duties, “as pure as a mirror and as sharp as a sword,” truly serving as the steadfast sword that upholds the Party’s discipline.
2- Regarding the Draft Documents for the 14th National Party Congress:
The draft documents for 14th Party National Congress have been meticulously prepared, updated, revised, and supplemented multiple times, especially incorporating the content agreed at the 11th and 12th meetings of the Party Central Committee. The documents now fundamentally meet the requirements for submission to the 14th National Party Congress. We aspire for these documents not only to summarise the past five years’ development and define the objectives and tasks for the next five years, but also to shape strategic thinking, vision, and the developmental direction of the country through the mid-21st century.
The Document Drafting Sub‑Committee has distilled and added the core elements of the seven new Politburo resolutions into the Political Report, and to date, 17 new points have been included in the draft documents for the 14th National Party Congress. In this meeting, Party Central Committee members and guest delegates should continue offering input to further refine the draft documents as each contribution is a step in our growth, and one more time we make the documents more complete.
Comrades, you should focus on five key areas:
(i) Affirm the key role of Party building and rectification, continued renovation of the Party’s leadership methods, improvement of its ruling capacity and combat strength, and realisation of President Ho Chi Minh’s vision of the Party as “morality and civilisation” as well as the fight against corruption, wastefulness, negativity, individualism, and group interests, alongside the prevention of ideological, ethical, and lifestyle degradation.
(ii) Issues such as theoretical foundations for renewal; streamlining the state apparatus; enhancing local government performance under the two-tier model; promoting decentralisation, ensuring environmental protection; strengthening national defence, security, foreign affairs, and international integration, while effectively addressing the relationships between State-market-society, culture-human development, education, and health care must be properly included in the draft documents.
(iii) Establish a new growth model driven primarily by science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation, identifying this as the central pillar of the country's development model; continue to perfect the model of a socialist-oriented market economy, under the leadership of the Party and the management of the State; define more clearly the leading role of the State economy; consider private economic development as the most important driving force of the economy.
(iv)Valuable lessons from 40 years of national renewal.
(v) give supplements to orientations on strategic self-reliance, innovation of the development model, and effective accounting-based thinking in national development.
The contents of the Action Program of the Party Central Committee have been designed by the Document Drafting Sub-Committee in accordance with the principle of closely following and concretizing the objectives, targets, guiding viewpoints, development orientations, key tasks, and strategic breakthroughs, while ensuring consistency with both domestic and international contexts.
These contents have been translated into specific tasks, schemes, works, and projects with clearly assigned responsibilities, defined resources, timelines, and necessary implementation conditions — all of which must be *measurable* during the implementation process.
However, this is very new content, very much in need of practical relevance, so your contributions are highly needed.
 |
| The Central Committee votes to approve the Conference program. (Source: Nhân dân Newspaper) |
II- On Socio-Economic Issues
Overall, the socio-economic picture of the country in 2025 is predominantly bright. Despite being affected by unfavorable global variables and severe natural disasters and floods, we have maintained stability and development.
The GDP in the third quarter of 2025 increased by 8.22%, with a cumulative increase of 7.84% over nine months. The nine-month budget revenue reached nearly 2 trillion VND, equivalent to 97.9% of the estimate, with a trade surplus of nearly 17 billion USD. It is expected that all 15 key indicators for 2025 will be achieved and exceeded. The GDP growth rate for 2025 is forecasted to reach 8.1% to 8.5%.
This is a significant effort by the Party, Government, National Assembly, agencies in the political system, local governments, the business community, and the entire people. However, there are still many internal issues in our economy that we must address to achieve more sustainable growth and development.
The year 2026 marks the beginning of a new term, crucial for implementing the Resolution of the 14th Party Congress. The targets are very high, especially economic growth, which must exceed 10%, with GDP per capita reaching 5,400-5,500 USD, and CPI growth around 4.5%.
This is a mandatory requirement, but also a very challenging issue. The Party Central Committee is requested to discuss and provide major orientation opinions for the Party Committee of the National Assembly and the Party Committee of the Government to lead the completion of the socio-economic development plan; state budget estimates for 2026 and the coming period in the spirit of: Enhancing strategic autonomy, self-reliance, self-strengthening in national development with the motto “stability, discipline, acceleration, breakthrough, sustainability”.
Comrades are requested to focus discussions on six focal points: (1) Maintaining macroeconomic stability: Flexible fiscal-monetary management, coordinated harmoniously, consolidating market confidence. (2) Promoting three growth drivers: investment - consumption - export, creating new space from regional linkage and high-quality urbanization. (3) Digital transformation - green transformation: turning data into resources, digital economy into engines; renewable energy, circular economy into sustainable pillars. (4) Enhancing productivity - quality-standards: promoting science - technology, innovation in enterprises; enhancing value chains and localization. (5) Developing capital, labor, science-technology, real estate markets towards safety - transparency-efficiency. (6) Strongly, decisively implementing the development program of 11 strategic technologies outlined in Resolution 57 to enhance scientific and technological autonomy.
The remaining contents in the Plenum program also need the comrades to focus their intellect, thoroughly discuss to make contributions in an objective, comprehensive, scientific, practical, specific, and holistic spirit.
 |
| Delegates attending the 13th Plenum of 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party. (Source: VNA) |
Dear comrades,
The rising revolutionary spirit does not come from words or perceptions but must come from tangible results, from “every family's meal”, from actions “milk for the young, silk for the old”.
The people are looking at us with new confidence and expectations. The responsibility of the Party Central Committee is to turn expectations into reality, “turn policies into a living stream”.
With responsibility to the Party, to the People, I urge each member of the Party Central Committee to uphold the spirit of exemplary conduct, work substantively and effectively, maintain discipline - order, “do not put off till tomorrow what can be done today”, “say what you do, do what you say”, determined to make the 13th Plenum of the Party Central Committee a substantial success, paving the way for the success of the 14th National Party Congress.
With firm confidence and new spirit, I declare the opening of the 13th Session of the 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party.
Wishing the Conference unity, intelligence, innovation, effectiveness; wishing all comrades health, happiness, success.
Thank you very much!
