In an interview with the Vietnam Economic Times, Mr Triet said that during the past 20 years of implementing the Renewal process, Vietnam has escaped the socio-economic crisis and secured a rather high economic growth rate for many consecutive years. National industrialisation and modernisation have been accelerated, and education and training and cultural activities have been constantly developed. The political regime and the bloc of national great unity have been strengthened, all-people national defence and security have been maintained while external relations have been expanded. As a result, all this has helped increase people’s trust in the Party’s Renewal process and elevate Vietnam’s position in the international arena. Notably, Vietnam has gathered more experiences in its chosen path to socialism.

According to Mr Triet, the Party has identified the path to socialism in Vietnam, which is “to develop a socialist-oriented market economy, accelerate industrialisation and modernisation, build an advanced culture imbued with national identity as the spiritual foundation of society, build the socialist democracy based on the bloc of great national unity, consolidate the law-governed socialist State of the people, for the people and by the people, build a strong and healthy Party, maintain national defence and security and actively integrate into the world economy.”   

The recent 10^th National Party Congress pointed out that it is necessary to continue consolidating the law-governed socialist State in Vietnam to ensure that all power belongs to the people and the State’s power is strengthened among agencies to implement their rights to legislation, execution and justice.

“Corruption and wastefulness are potential threats to the existence of the regime, so we need to prevent and combat these negative phenomena to build a strong and healthy apparatus,” said Mr Triet.  

He also stressed that the building of such a state needs practical activities rather than theory to ensure that the State represents the interests of the people and in turn the people are engaged in building the nation. He said the State’s role is to help the people achieve their legitimate aspirations according to the law, particularly at the grassroots level. To this end, the State should listen to the people attentively. In other words, success will come if the State knows how to rely on the people.

“The building of such a State is extremely important and in this State all the citizens must live and work according to the Constitution and the law,” said the State President. “All citizens must be equal before the law. The press must help disseminate the law among the population.”