The 13th National Party Congress of Vietnam is one of the most important political events in the country in 2021. With the results and accomplishments achieved in 2020 in particular, and during the past 5 years, Vietnam has made a mark with breakthroughs, outstanding in the difficult circumstances and situations facing the world.
Over the past many years, Vietnam has been known as a safe country with rare occurrences of violence, territorial disputes and with index on human security gradually improving. With political stability, the Vietnamese people now believe in the political system and in the leadership levels of the Communist Party, as a result of which the important decisions of the Communist Party are often fully supported by the Vietnamese people.
In 2020, the highlight for Vietnam was the very early control of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also managing to promote economic growth; and the success of the government in implementing the ‘dual goal’ mission with all flexibility, initiative, creativity, the participation of the entire political system, and unity of the entire Vietnamese people. Recognizing this issue, the representative of the World Bank (WB) commented on the fight against COVID19 as: “Dark clouds cover the world, but the sun is still shining in Vietnam”.
This represents a miracle only existing in Vietnam, which is a country with 95 million people located right next to China, but has controlled the spread of the pandemic with limited health resources compared to other developed countries in the world.
In terms of economics, under the leadership of the Communist Party, Vietnam has been ranked among the top 10 fastest growing countries in the world over the past five years, and is one of the 16 most successful emerging economies. In 2020, when the majority of countries had negative growth or went into recession due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam’s economy continued to grow at 2.91 percent, which contributed to average GDP in 5 years reaching 5.9 percent.
The Vietnamese economy created more than 1,200 billion USD value of GDP; more than 8 million new jobs; average income of people increased by nearly 145 percent and the size of the economy increased by 1.4 times.Vietnam became the 4th largest economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); export turnover in the 2016-2020 period increased from 176.58 billion USD in 2016 to nearly 281.5 billion USD in 2020, with an average export growth of about 11.7 percent per year. Vietnam is also recognized as becoming a ‘manufacturing hub’ in the Asia-Pacific region.
The World Bank assesses that Vietnam is a part of Asia with dynamic resurgence. with its economy increasingly open, diversified, and with great investments in research and development, including in the digital economy. Vietnam is considered to be an important partner in all fields, a dynamic economy with a friendly investment environment and stable political system, creating favorable conditions for external cooperation and an important factor in international economic cooperation.
From 2016 up to now, Vietnam has continuously signed five Free Trade Agreements including four Free Trade Agreements that have been implemented, increasing the total number of free trade agreements signed by Vietnam to 14. The scale and preferences of each Agreement are increasingly expanding, especially the RCEP agreement in 2020, which is the largest free trade agreement in the world.
Signatories to the RCEP agreement include the 10 ASEAN countries, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand with the combined GDP of 15 countries more than 26 trillion USD, and accounting for nearly 30 percent of the world GDP, while covering one-third of the global population. International integration has made an important contribution to Vietnam’s economic growth and enhanced Vietnam’s international competitiveness.
Over the past years, a prominent mark of Vietnam is that it has clearly shown its role of connecting, enhancing friendly and cooperative relations and deepening trust between countries inside and outside the region. The Communist Party of Vietnam has developed a long-term strategic plan for foreign affairs and economic development. Diplomatic relations and international integration have achieved important success, contributing to enhance Vietnam’s position in the international and regional arena.
In 2020, as the Chairman of ASEAN, Vietnam has proactively shown a special leadership role in fields such as: First, Vietnam unifies the ASEAN countries in their efforts to cope with the COVID19 pandemic and recovery. Second, Vietnam has built a consensus on ASEAN’s neutral stance and central role in the context of superpower competition. Third, Vietnam has successfully managed to complete negotiations for the Agreement of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Fourth, Vietnam reinforces ASEAN’s policy statement on the South China Sea by emphasizing the importance of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. During the ASEAN Summit, the Prime Minister of Vietnam stated that it is necessary to avoid actions to increase tensions, not to militarize, and to settle disputes by peaceful means in accordance with international law, including UNCLOS 1982; undertook to fully and effectively implement the DOC and continue efforts to achieve an valid and effective COC in accordance with international law, including UNCLOS 1982.
In 2020, Vietnam also achieved great successes as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Vietnam has launched many initiatives in fields such as humanitarian activities, peacekeeping operations, activities against climate change, and cybercrime prevention activities. For the United Nations, Vietnam has stated its policy of becoming a ‘Partner for sustainable peace’”. Viet Nam presided over the proposal of the United Nations General Assembly to adopt a Resolution that makes 27 December every year as the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness. Vietnam’s voice is gaining more weight in regional and international affairs and its capacity to chair, govern and lead at conferences, forums, regional and international organizations is increasingly proven. With brilliant marks in all fields, the Vietnamese Communist Party of the 13th Congress will continue to develop Vietnam in-depth, deeply integrated with the world with its increasing role and position, and with partners’ trust in the prestige of Vietnam.
