There have been signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” with different degrees among a number of cadres and party members. Therefore, party committees and organizations need to take stringent measures to successfully prevent and repel those manifestations  to improve the quality of their cadres and party members and  make the Party pure and strong.

“Self-evolution” and “self-transformation” is the process in which cadres and party members witness a negative trend in  their political ideology, morals and lifestyle,  gradually degrading the communists’ belief and standards . If not prevented opportunely, this would result in the  divergence from principles, the denial of Marxism–Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, the goals, revolutionary ideals and guidelines of the Party, and the State’s policies and laws. Some people even have a one-sided, simple understanding of this change and are unconscious of its consequences. Consequently, they have accidentally joined hands with the hostile forces to sabotage the Party, State and the country’s revolutionary cause. Therefore, this matter cannot be disregarded as it directly threatens the pureness, firmness, leadership, and combat power of the Party and the existence of the socialist regime. The Resolution of the 4^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (12^th tenure) on “Strengthening Party building and rectification, preventing and  repelling degradation in political ideology, morals, lifestyle, and signs of  “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within the Party” has pointed out 27 signs of degradation, “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”, analysed and specified causes, and worked out measures for each party member to correct themselves. Thereby, positive changes have been made in the field of Party building. People’s confidence has been strengthened. The combat power of party organisations and members has been increasingly enhanced.

However, those signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”  have not been  dealt with completely but still exist in a number of cadres and party members. In particular, there have been manifestations of denying Marxism–Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought and the Party’s organising principles;  demanding “pluralism”; refuting the socialist law-governed State, and  clamouring for the “separation of powers” and the “civil society”; defaming leaders of the Party and State; asking for depoliticisation of the Military and Public Security forces, and so on. Hence, actively and opportunely recognising and clearly identifying causes to work out appropriate measures to prevent and fight “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” represent an urgent task of the Party and the whole political system. In order to achieve positive results, party committees and organizations need to adopt drastically and synchronously the measures pointed out in the Resolution of the 4^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (12^th tenure) . Accordingly, they should focus on the following issues:

First, strengthening education to make all cadres and party members deeply imbued with Marxism–Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, and the Party’s viewpoints and guidelines. Any  vagueness, or disregard of Marxism–Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought and the Party’s viewpoints, guidelines and platforms  will inevitably result in  the degradation in political ideology.  “To belittle the socialist ideology in any way, to turn aside from it in the slightest degree means to strengthen bourgeois ideology,” said Vladimir Lenin. To prevent this issue, party committees and organizations should  promote propaganda and education with the aim of making cadres and party members deeply imbued and steadfast in the ideology of the working class. The  propaganda and education process should further assert the revolutionary and scientific nature and values of Marxism–Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought to Vietnam’s revolution. It is imperative to strengthen theoretical study and practical review; develop and creatively apply Marxism–Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought to Vietnam’s reality; and perfect the system of viewpoints on socialism and the path to socialism in our country. Special importance should be attached to avoiding the risk of dogmatism and revisionism,  thereby consolidating the trust of cadres, party members and the masses in the Party’s leadership and making them steadfast in the goals of national independence and socialism.

Second,  accelerating Party building and rectification according to the Resolution of the 4^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (12^th tenure). It can be said that  recent results of the Party building and rectification work , particularly those of the  struggle against  corruption and wastefulness with severe sentences for violations, have made considerable contribution to educating, training and  disabusing our cadres and party members. For this reason, party committees and organizations should further strengthen the work of Party building and rectification; implement synchronously and effectively the measures that have been stipulated in the Resolution of the 4^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (12^th tenure) in combination with the implementation of the Politburo’s Directive 05-CT/TW  (13^thtenure) on strengthening the studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morals and style. In particular, it is necessary to adhere to the regimes, routines and principles  of the Party’s activities; and improve the quality of party cells’ activities, self-criticism and criticism, and self-correction.  Where there  are signs of degradation, “self-evolution,” and “self-transformation” there should be suggestion and direction for criticism from upper levels. The exemplary role of secretaries and commanders of the units in morals, lifestyle and working style has to be enhanced to encourage  cadres, party members and the masses to follow. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the struggle against corruption and wastefulness at all levels and sectors. Besides the investigation and judgment of the unveiled cases of corruption, functional agencies should study to establish new deterrent mechanisms capable of preventing corrupt activities and “group interest”; and promote the role of the elected committees, Fatherland fronts, people’s unions, mass media, etc., in this struggle, as well as in the Party building work.

Third, strengthening the management and training of cadres and party members, especially in the realms of dignity and  lifestyle. Degradation in morals and lifestyle is the  source of degradation in  political ideology, “self-evolution” and “self-transformation.” Therefore, the 12^th National Party Congress has continued to affirm that building the Party in moral terms  will be part  of the task to  make the Party pure and strong. Accordingly, the whole Party needs to attach importance to fostering dignity, healthy lifestyle, diligence, thrift, integrity, uprightness, public-mindedness, and selflessness  in each cadre and party member in order to  enable them to be immune  to plots and schemes of the hostile forces and negative impacts of the market economy and international integration. Cadres and party members, first and foremost party committees, need to heighten their sense of  responsibility to the development of their plans of action for executing the Resolution of the 4th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (12^th tenure) on Party building and rectification and the Directive 05-CT/TW of the Politburo (12^th tenure). Besides, it is necessary to align education with the management and self-management of party members, especially their relations in their residential areas to timely detect and prevent  manifestations of violation; resolutely counter the negative signs of “group interest”, opportunism, “words without matching deeds,” and  lack of self-improvement and training in political steadfastness, morals and lifestyle of cadres and party members.

Fourth,  intensifying  inspection, supervision and  implementation of the Party’s disciplinary action. According to  a report of the Central Inspection Commission released on 12 January 2018, in 2017, party committees conducted nearly 60,000 inspections of party organizations and more than 230,000 party members regarding their execution of the Party’s resolutions, directives and regulations, and the State’s policies and laws. Thereby, more than 700 party organizations and nearly 1,500 party members were found guilty, in which 22 party organizations and 350 party members were disciplined. This has asserted the importance of inspection within the Party and stressed the need for  regular inspection, supervision and  implementation of the Party’s disciplinary action. To accomplish this work successfully, party committees and organizations should grasp and adhere to  guidelines, methods and principles of inspection and supervision; build concrete plans and programs in accordance with  specific missions of each party organization, cadre and party member. The inspection and supervision should be conducted comprehensively in ideology, politics, capability, morals, lifestyle, and task performance,  especially those  holding managerial positions  at agencies and units. During the implementation process, it is necessary to promote the  integrated strength of forces and organizations; align inspection and supervision with the implementation of the Party’s disciplinary action ; resolutely punish cadres and party members with violation, ensuring timeliness, exactness, openness, transparency, and equality; and improve the quality of admitting new party members  while reviewing,  screening and expelling those who are no longer qualified from party organisations.

Recognising, preventing and repelling degradation in political ideology, morals, lifestyle, and  manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within the Party represent a matter of special importance and an urgent task of the whole Party today. Effective implementation of the above measures will provide a firm basis for  making our Party increasingly pure and strong, capable of fulfilling its historic mission in the new situation.

Those days a name of so-called activist Phạm Đoan Trang (Pham Doan Trang) has been attracted much controvesy from social public opinions at home and abroad for her new controversial book “Politics for All” – a work is now proved as an anti-government propaganda. But who is Pham Doan Trang?

Pham Doan Trang was a reporter for the Internet news site VietnamNet, arrested on August 28, 2009 on charge of violating national security when involving in a plan to print T-shirts opposing a country’s project with China over sovereignty disputes on the South China Sea which could escalate tension and conducting anti-government propaganda under Article 88 of the Vietnamese Criminal Code. For the country’s amnesty she was released on September 12, 2009.

But Trang has not changed any more, she has carried out many activities that caused a lot of troubles for the country’s security. Trang's blog, Trang the Ridiculous, covers a range of sensitive topics, including the relationship between Vietnam and China and the dispute between the two countries over territorial claims on the South China Sea, which was so unconstructive and irreponsible to the national security. And, recently she published her new book “Politics for All” by illegally spreading copies abroad and posting on socail media that might cause instability among the society.

Trang’s actions are not strange to the authority. Last year, she provided the EU delegation in Hanoi with wrong informationa on the human rights situation in Vietnam, fabrication about the Formosa toxic waste spill that destroyed the livelihoods of coastal residents last year, and false allegations about the state of religious freedom in the country. Of course, she had to paid for her wrongdoings. The police arrested her for 24 hours to interrogate her on hurting the social order. But abusing the incident some human rights groups like Front Line Defender, Reporter Without Borders (RSF) unreasonably accused and condemned Vietnam for persecution of the journalist. They even launched the #StopTheCrackdownVN campaign decrying the crackdown of bloggers and activists in Vietnam, demanding the release of Pham Doan Trang and other bloggers who violated laws like her including Me Nam (Mother Mushroom) Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, Nguyen Tien Trung of Democratic Youth Movement, Tran Thi Nga, etc.

For Trang, she was even announced as the winner of the 2017 Homo Homini Prize from People in Need “for the courage she employs while tirelessly pursuing a democratic change within her country, despite harassment and persecution.”

Those human rights groups should thoroughly and objectively view the human rights situation in Vietnam to have right and fair judgements about Vietnam’s achievements on protecting and promoting human rights and freedom of press and expression, religious freedom through previous years. And Trang, she should stop to a troublemaker to the national security that could harm interests of the people and the country./.

The development of physical infrastructure as well as educational and health infrastructure is essential to improve the living standards of people across the country, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has said.

He made the statement at a conference in Hanoi on February 28 to review the implementation of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee’s Resolution No.13-NQ/TW dated January 16, 2012 on building a synchronous infrastructure system in order to turn Vietnam into a modernity-oriented industrial country by 2020.

The resolution requires focusing investment on transport infrastructure, electricity supply, irrigation networks, climate change adaptation and urban development. 

From 2012, the Government promulgated an action programme to realise this resolution.

PM Phuc recognised infrastructure development over the past years, but pointed out shortcomings in the field such as asynchronous planning and snail-speed implementation of some projects. 

Poor infrastructure also hinders the country’s development with urgent issues like traffic congestions and hospital overload.

The supplementation, revision and reform of mechanisms and institutions are needed to develop infrastructure, the PM said, underlining the proposal of the Ministry of Planning and Investment to promote public-private partnership (PPP) form.

He noted that when the economic scale has increased to over 5 quadrillion VND (218 billion USD) and the public debt reduced to 61 percent, it is necessary to weigh measures to seek financial resources from official development assistance (ODA), Government bonds, and international bonds for infrastructure development.

Vietnam's public and private sector infrastructure investment averaged 5.7 percent of gross domestic product in recent years, the highest in Southeast Asia and compares with 6.8 percent in China, according to the Asian Development Bank. Indonesia and the Philippines spend less than 3 percent, while Malaysia and Thailand spend even less at under 2 percent.

The ADB estimates that emerging economies in the region will need to invest as much as 26 trillion USD through 2030 to build transport networks, boost power supply and upgrade water and sanitation facilities. Vietnam, among the fastest-growing nations in the world, is boosting infrastructure to lure more foreign investors as it positions itself as Asia's next Tiger Economy.

Vietnam needs about 480 billion USD through 2020 to construct 11 power plants with total capacity of 13,200 megawatts and about 1,380 kilometres of highways as well as carry out other environment, health and education projects./.

Vietnam has made progress in fighting corruption in recent years. The country scored of 35 points out of 100 on the CPI 2017. The country scored 31 in 2015 and 33 in 2016.

Vietnam ranks 107th among 180 countries and territories in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2017 released by Transparency International on February 22, a slight improvement from the two previous years.

The index ranks the 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople. It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

According to Towards Transparency (TT), the national contact of Transparency International in Vietnam, the slight increase of the country’s CPI score for two consecutive years is a positive sign for its anti-corruption efforts.

TT said in 2017, with the renewed commitments of the Party and the State, national anti-corruption efforts have attained some positive results, including the adjudication of serious corruption cases involving several high-level public officials. At the same time, Vietnam has continued to improve its anti-corruption legal framework, such as the revision of the existing Law on Anti-corruption in line with international standards.

The country needs to take further measures and develop effective, accountable and inclusive institutions. It recommended Vietnam improve the effectiveness of the National Assembly’s overseeing role and the independence in adjudication by the judiciary, enhance anti-corruption efforts in areas where citizens regularly encounter corruption and bribery (police, public health, and public education) and improve the legal framework on whistleblower protection to stimulate social participation in anti-corruption.

Meanwhile, businesses should take initiatives in fighting against corruption and building business integrity. They should also strengthen internal anti-corruption capacities.

Media, civil society organisations and citizens should engage in anti-corruption efforts by promoting transparency, integrity and accountability, while exercising the right to access information and taking part in monitoring the implementation of the 2016 Law on Access to Information./.

Vietnam will complete policy and enhance the management and exploitation of music copyright, said Dinh Trung Can, vice director of the Vietnam Centre for Protection of Music Copyright (VCPMC) during a workshop held in Hanoi on March 1.

The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) hosted the workshop with the participation of 12 member countries to exchange experiences on performing rights licensing for Asia-Pacific societies.

The delegates discussed performing rights licensing in cinemas, theme parks, live concerts and other places such as hotels, restaurants, cafes and special events.

“CISAC works to protect the rights and promote the interests of creators across all regions of the world and artistic fields; music, audiovisual, drama, literature and visual arts,” said Benjamin Ng, the Regional Director for Asia-Pacific of CISAC.

“We aim to secure fair remuneration for creators for the use of their works anywhere in the world.”

Each year CISAC organises a workshop at a member country to share experiences and enhance the copyright management of the societies.

“I highly appreciate the effort of the VCPMC in actively fulfilling music copyright in the country,” Ng said.

“Not only in Vietnam, but other countries, we face with many challenges in protecting the copyright and practice licensing, especially when it’s hard to manage the copyright on internet.”

“We are trying to cooperate with local authorities to give solutions and policy to protect copyright effectively in Vietnam,” said Ng.

“On the other hand, we also raise people’s awareness of the importance of musical copyright protection. It’s the best way to encourage and support authors and composers to create works for the life.”

Can said the VCPMC established the network of representatives in cities and districts throughout the country who directly manage the license and collect royalties. Now the VCPMC has 3,550 members nationwide.

“Not only paying attention, the VCPMC also have constructive suggestions on the making of copyright law documents and collaborate with government agencies in promoting, disseminating and practicing copyright law,” he said.

“On a global scale, VCPMC always actively seek, build, and expand relations with sister music copyright organisations.”

Currently, VCPMC used CIS-Net (a network of databases provided by the CISAC) and MIS-Asia (copyright alert system).

Satoshi Watanabe, representative of the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC), suggested that Vietnam should use a comprehensive plan to collect royalties and protect copyright.

“At any given moment, numerous musical works are being used in a variety of ways,” he said. 

“For music users, the ideal is to be able to get permission from the right owners to use any musical work as quickly and as effortlessly as possible. For copyright owners, on the other hand, the ideal is to choose an organisation with a system that is able to efficiently collect royalties from a full range of music users.”  

“We are committed to develop a comprehensive range of services, using a variety of databases and licensing systems that will satisfy the needs of both copyright owners and music users.”./.

More than 2.86 million foreigners was estimated to visit Vietnam in January and February, up 29.7 percent from the same period in 2017.

According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, Asian visitors made up the lion’s share of the number, at over 2.12 million people, increasing 35.8 percent year on year. The number of Chinese visitors, which accounted for 30 percent of the total tourist arrivals in Vietnam during the period, grew by 38.5 percent annually.

The numbers of tourist arrivals by air, road, and sea during the two-month period recorded respective annual increases of 26.3, 58.4, and 3.5 percent.

The number of international tourists to the capital city of Vietnam is estimated to rise by 30% to 125,000 people during the week-long Tet (Lunar New Year) festival, according to the Hanoi Department of Tourism.

Tourism in central and southern regions have reaped the benefits of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday (February 14 - 20), reporting an impressive surge in the number of visitors.

In the seven-day period, the Hue Complex of Monuments, a World Cultural Heritage site and famous tourist destination in the central province of Thua Thien – Hue, welcomed 117,000 visitors, including 47,000 foreigners. The total number of tourists to the site saw an increase of nearly 50 percent from the same period last year. The site offered free entrance to visitors on the first three days of the lunar year (February 16-18).

The Da Nang Tourism Department said the central coastal city served closed to 300,000 tourist arrivals during Tet, up 14 percent from 2017. The number of international visitors amounted to over 132,000, increasing 14 percent year-on-year, while the figures for domestic visitors were 164,893 and 5 percent, respectively.
The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, meanwhile, received 700,000 tourists, 10 percent higher than last year, according to its Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Within just five day of Tet (February 16-20), over 1 million people flocked to the southeast region (excluding the number of visitors to the local Vung Tau beach during the period). Binh Duong province announced that its popular Dai Nam tourism site attracted nearly 150,000 tourists during the period, a seven-fold increase compared to normal days. Dong Nai province highlighted the number of more than 100,000 arrivals per day recorded in the local Buu Long tourism site; the figure represented an annual growth of 30 percent. Tay Ninh province, home to the popular spiritual tourism destination of Ba Den, also posted a 5 percent increase in the number of visitors, at over 100,000 visitors per day.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said it aims to serve between 15 and 17 million foreigners and 78 million domestic travellers this year, with total revenue expected to hit 620 trillion VND (27.28 billion USD), up 21.35 percent on year.

Vu The Binh, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, said Northeast Asia, including China, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Japan, Taiwan (China), will continue to be the major sources of tourists to Vietnam. Last year, China and the RoK sent 4 and 2.4 million visitors to Vietnam.
With a growth of 30 percent in tourism in 2017, Vietnam for the first time came on the list of countries with fastest tourism growth speed in the world, ranking at the 6th place./.

The average household poverty rate in Vietnam dropped by 1.51 percent from 2016 to 6.72 percent in 2017, according to the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction.

The decline rate is higher than the target set by the National Assembly, 1.3 percent to 1.5 percent.

The country has also mobilised almost 400 trillion VND (17.7 billion USD) from the State budget, enterprises, organisations and individuals for the cause of new-style rural area building and poverty reduction.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, while chairing a meeting of the Central Steering Committee on National Target Programmes in 2016-2020 in Hanoi on February 28, asked member ministries of the committee to be more active, determined, creative and aggressive in sustainable poverty reduction.

Bui Sy Loi, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Committee on Social Affairs, praised the Government’s efforts in poverty reduction in 2017, saying he was especially impressed by the fact that the Government had called on enterprises, organisations and individuals to make donations of more than 126 trillion VND (5.6 billion USD).

For his part, Hue said the remarkable achievement was the completion of the legal framework document for the phase 2016 – 2020 in terms of new criteria for new-style rural area models and multi-dimensional approaches for sustainable poverty reduction. The framework also includes new models for agriculture restructuring, climate change adaptation and sustainable livelihoods.

“The important thing is that member ministries and localities have to be active when implementing programmes and ensuring efficiency in investment,” he said.

The Deputy PM required that in the next two years, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to work on the new criteria set for “poor districts”.

“The new criteria should be able to encourage localities to try and escape poverty, not encourage them to maintain poverty to enjoy supporting policies like they do currently,” Hue said.

According to the Ministry of Investment and Planning, in 2018 the country would try to reduce the rate of poor households from 1 to 1.5 percent per year, basing on the multi-dimensional poverty approach.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said the building of new-style countryside needed to focus on improving income for residents while still protecting the environment and conserving local cultural characteristics.

The country would try to have 15,000 agriculture cooperatives by 2020, he added.

Vietnamese Ambassador Duong Chi Dung, head of the Vietnamese permanent mission to the United Nations, the WTO and other international organisations in Geneva attended the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council which opened in Geneva on February 26.

Vietnam will make efforts to ensure that its citizens fully enjoy human rights, said Ambassador Duong Chi Dung, head of the permanent Vietnamese mission to the UN, WTO and other international organisations in Geneva, Switzerland.   Addressing a panel discussion within the framework of the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on February 28, Ambassador Dung affirmed that Vietnam has seriously implemented international human rights commitments.  He cited the country’s completion of a national report on the implementation of the International Convention against Torture and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.  Vietnam has also materialised recommendations accepted in line with the UNHRC’s second-cycle universal periodical review, the ambassador added.  He highlighted Vietnam’s priorities and initiatives at the UNHRC such as introducing the annual resolution on climate change and human rights and organising international seminars regarding the protection of vulnerable groups’ human rights.  On the sidelines of the 37th session, the Vietnamese mission organised a seminar on the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in promoting economic, cultural and social rights and reducing inequality, on February 27, he said.  Vietnam will make more contributions to help the UNHRC become an effective mechanism in protecting and promoting human rights, he emphasised.  Dung used the occasion to introduce Vietnam’s achievements such as its implementation of national action programmes on realising the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development and the Paris Agreement on climate change.  The country has also carried out programmes to support people, especially vulnerable groups, in accessing social services, he said.  The same day, Ambassador Dung attended a high-level panel discussion marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.  Speaking at the event, he called on the international community to enhance cooperation and dialogue, handle inequality and ensure that globalisation and the fourth industrial revolution benefit all people./.