The National Target Program for New Rural Development and the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in the 2021-25 period have achieved several notable results, said Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh on April 22 while chairing the online national conference on the issue.

 

He assessed that basic socio-economic infrastructure has been improved. Rural people’s living standards also improved.
 

Poverty reduction and social security continue to be ensured, enabling people to better access basic social services. Many social policies have come into life, playing their role of practical support for the disadvantaged.
 

Permanent Deputy PM Minh asked representatives at the conference to discuss and propose resolutions to continue conducting the programs so that avoid duplicating tasks, effectively using resources but not omitting in-need groups.
 

Speaking about the new rural program in the 2021-25 period, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that by 2025, the whole country was targeted to have 80 percent of communes meeting new rural standards (currently 69.4 percent); 50 percent of district-level units meet new rural standards (currently 34.1 percent); 60 percent of villages and hamlets in extremely difficult communes are recognized as meeting new rural standards. As many as 17-19 provinces and cities in the whole country complete the task of building new rural areas, up from five. 
 

The planned budget allocated for the program is at least VND 196.3 trillion (USD 8.5 billion).
 

Regarding the sustainable poverty reduction program, the Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung emphasized that the overall goal was to achieve sustainable poverty reduction, limit re-poverty and support poor households to access basic social services and improve their life quality.
 

The program sets annual targets that the rate of poor households will decrease by 1-1.5 percent, ethnic minority poor households by three percent, and households in poor districts by four to five percent. In the whole period, 30 percent of poor districts and 30 percent of communes with special difficulties will get out of poverty.
 

The planned total budget for the program is at least VND 75 trillion (USD 3.3 billion), of which the state budget plays a leading role, creating motivation for other resources to join the program, said Dung.
 

Representatives from Cao Bang, Yen Bai, Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Quang Nam, Gia Lai and An Giang confirmed that the programs had an important meaning in the provinces’ socio-economic development.
 

It improved people's living standards, fundamentally changing the face of rural areas, especially in disadvantaged areas.

They believed that to reach the programs’ targets, they needed not only determination and effort but also creative ways of doing things.
 

They proposed the State soon have guidelines and specific criteria in the national target programs that are suitable to the specific conditions of different regions.
 

Appreciating enthusiastic and responsible contributions from localities, Permanent Deputy PM Minh emphasized the importance of timely guidelines for the national target programs.
 

He required that next month, the assigned ministries must urgently issue circulars and component projects.

"Component projects and sub-programs must be formulated and appraised in strict accordance with regulations on public investment and relevant laws," he said.

 

President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc on Thursday stressed that the Vietnam Lawyers Association (VLA) needs to play a more active role in policy and law making, scientific research in the legal sector, and the building and perfecting of a rule-of-law socialist state.

Speaking at a working session with representatives from the association, Phúc, who is also head of the Central Steering Committee for Judicial Reform, urged the VLA to improve its operational quality and work harder to popularise guidelines of the Party, as well as policies and laws of the State to raise respect for the law and its observance among the public.

The association needed to further contribute to lawyer training, step up international cooperation and take advantage of support from foreign lawyers and friends of Việt Nam, he noted.

The President commended VLA’s proposal to collect feedback from its members on a project developing a strategy for building and perfecting a rule-of-law socialist State till 2030 with orientations to 2045.

Lauding the association’s performance over the years, Phúc said it had effectively implemented people-to-people diplomacy and international cooperation, especially in safeguarding the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The association should make greater efforts to fulfil its role as an advisor of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in social criticism for legal documents, the leader added.

Established in 1955, the association now has nearly 70,000 members who are both experienced and young lawyers./.

 

Ambassador Đặng Hoàng Giang, Permanent Representative of Việt Nam to the UN, called on the international community to strengthen efforts to address conflict-induced hunger during a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday (US time).

The Arria-formula meeting on conflict and hunger was attended by Máximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); Margot Van Der Velden, Director of Emergencies at the World Food Programme (WFP); and Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

Giang said the world’s food system had been increasingly challenged by conflicts, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and natural disasters. These had seriously threatened global food security, especially with regard to countries and conflicts in Africa, Asia or Europe, he said.

He welcomed recent efforts by the UN, FAO, WFP and humanitarian partners to provide aid to people in many areas, and encouraged the UN and partners to forge solutions to surging prices of many necessary commodities.

He also suggested increasing the exchange of information and updates about areas where food insecurity emerges or evolves.

The Vietnamese diplomat emphasised that all parties to a conflict must adhere to international humanitarian law and not use starvation as a method of warfare as stated in Resolutions 2417 and 2573.

He also urged deepening cooperation between the UN and regional organisations in tackling the root causes of conflict, building peace and preventing conflict, thus reducing the risk of conflict-induced hunger.

ASEAN had formed a specific partnership in sustaining food security over recent years, he noted, adding that Việt Nam viewed food security as the root of security, stability and development and would continue contributing to the world’s efforts in addressing food security./.

 

Việt Nam can become the second largest digital economy in Southeast Asia in 2025, while the country’s e-commerce market will draw more large-scale businesses, forecast experts at an online seminar in HCM City on Wednesday.

They also said that online businesses would involve more economic sectors and more big players in the time to come.

Đỗ Hữu Hùng, General Director of AccessTrade, held that e-commerce should be the first step, followed by logistics and delivery services to win stronger confidence among consumers and improve their shopping experience.

Hùng said that with better logistics and delivery services, the digital economy could make up 50-60 per cent of the Vietnamese economy in the future.

The years of 2020 and 2021 can be described as a special period with unprecedented changes under impacts of COVID-19, where online business in Việt Nam enjoyed a breakthrough growth in both domestic and foreign markets.

According to the “E-Commerce White Book 2020”, the global revenue from B2C e-commerce activities is likely to rise by 1.5 times in the 2019-23 period from US$1.94 trillion to over $2.88 trillion. The book also predicted that Southeast Asia, including Việt Nam, would see high growth.

Phan Bình, Director of J&T Express Vietnam, said that businesses would not need giant shops but high quality products which would be delivered to customers through suitable services.

Currently, many foreign firms have sought business opportunities in the potential market of Việt Nam with the motto of "Think Global, Act Local". Meanwhile, online business activities have drawn a large number of companies, cooperatives, business households and individuals in both rural and urban areas.

Experts advised enterprises operating online business to seek supports in consultations and solutions to develop their one-stop-shop model.

They also underlined the need for wider coverage of delivery services to meet the demand of the booming e-commerce sector./.

 Việt Nam’s economic growth in the first quarter of 2022 was consolidated thanks to the solid performance of export-oriented manufacturing and recovering service sector, according to the Việt Nam Macro Monitoring report recently released by World Bank.

The country’s GDP grew by 5.0 per cent year-on-year in Q1-2022, comparable to the growth rate in Q4-2021, yet was still two percentage points below pre-pandemic rates.

Industry and construction and services sectors grew 6.4 per cent year-on-year and 4.6 per cent year-on-year, respectively, contributing 4.3 percentage points to quarterly GDP growth. Growth of industry and construction was driven by strong external demand for manufactured products, while services sector performance varied across sub-sector.

Finance, banking and insurance, and information and telecommunications have been exceptionally resilient over the past two years and maintained solid growth. On the other hand, accommodation and catering services were 1.8 per cent lower than a year ago, and well below their pre-pandemic level, the report pointed out.

The industrial production index grew by 8.5 per cent year-on-year in March, comparable to pre-pandemic rates, while retail sales growth accelerated from 4.1 per cent in February to 9.4 per cent, the second-highest growth rate since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This rebound is partly due to the post-pandemic resumption of economic activities and was driven by a 10.7 per cent growth in the sales of goods.

The merchandise trade balance posted a surplus of US$1.4 billion in March, while registered and disbursed foreign direct investment (FDI) remained stable amid global uncertainties related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 2.4 per cent (year-on-year) in March, compared to 1.4 per cent in February. This is the highest inflation rate in seven months but remains well below the 4.0 per cent target.

According to the World Bank, rising consumer and producer prices warrant close monitoring of domestic price developments as rising inflation would affect the recovery of domestic consumption and economic growth. While CPI increases have been subdued in 2021 due partly to slack aggregate demand, accumulated increases in intermediate and producer price index in the last three quarters could impact production decisions and translate into higher consumer prices, especially food prices.

In the short run, targeted policy intervention to alleviate the impact of the price hikes on the general population, and especially on the most vulnerable is recommended. The temporary petroleum tax reduction recently introduced by the authorities is one such short term measure. In the medium term, other measures would include a more targeted, effective, and responsive social protection system that would help build resilience to shocks in the economy. If price increases persist, the economy should be allowed to adjust to the price changes.

The authorities should consider structural reforms to help the economy become more productive and increase aggregate supply. These would include tax breaks for productive and innovative investments, reducing barriers to doing business and logistics costs and investing in the education and technical training of the workforce, said the World Bank./.

 

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on April 19 received a delegation of 92 outstanding patriarchs and heads of villages and artisans of ethnic minority groups, who have made great contributions to the preservation and promotion of the groups’ cultural traditions.

On the occasion of the Vietnamese Ethnic Groups' Culture Day (April 19), President Phuc extended his best wishes and sincere sentiments to the delegates.

He affirmed that the work of caring for and improving the material and spiritual lives of ethnic minorities has received more and more attention and bettered, reflected through projects and policies on preserving and promoting cultural values of the groups, and the guideline of considering ethnic cultures as an integral part of Vietnamese culture.

Culture is the soul of a nation, President Phuc stressed, asking generations of Vietnamese people to unite, maintain and develop culture in association with stepping up socio-economic development and ensuring national defence-security.

Together with the conservation and promotion of cultural values, it is necessary to pay more attention to stepping up poverty reduction, improving the living standards of the ethnic minority groups, and bettering the learning encouragement to increase the literacy rate among them.

Hailing their great contributions, the State leader expressed his hope that the patriarchs, heads, prestigious persons of villages, and artisans would continue to act as role models for their relatives and communities, and conserve and promote the values of their ethnic groups’ cultural traditions and arts./.

 In the process of educating, training, and building the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV), President Ho Chi Minh soon warned that individualism was one of the most harmful diseases, especially when our Party became a ruling party. According to him, cadres and party members were prone to many wrongdoings and did damage to the Party, State, nation, people, and revolution due to individualism. Therefore, it is an absolute must to eradicate individualism completely, raise revolutionary morality, and foster collective thought, the spirit of solidarity, sense of organisation and discipline.

Being deeply imbued with President Ho Chi Minh’s teaching, our Party pays regular attention to Party building in terms of ideology, politics, morality, organisation, and cadres with a view to cultivating a corps of cadres and party members, who possess both talents and good virtues and are wholeheartedly dedicated to and sacrifice for noble ideals and glorious revolutionary cause of the entire Party, people, and military. In fact, victory of Vietnamese revolution is greatly attributed to contribution of the Party’s excellent cadres and party members. Nevertheless, given the spirit of looking at the situation realistically, our Party has clearly specified that part of cadres and party members, including the high-ranking ones, are degraded in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle, have manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation,” keep themselves aloof from the Party’s goals and ideals, degenerate, and violate state law and Party’s discipline. Slipping into individualism is one of manifestations and root causes of corrupting the corps of cadres and party members and undermining the Party’s revolutionary nature, leadership capacity, and combat strength.

Slipping into individualism is associated with pragmatic lifestyle and absolutisation of private interests. Whatever thoughts or deeds, they only think about their individual interests without regard to collective interests. Individualism goes against collectivism and revolutionary ethics. Slipping into individualism is the process that cadres and party members gradually deteriorate in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle; think and act against revolutionary ethics; keep aloof from revolutionary ideals; and have no desire for self-training, thus failing to accomplish missions of cadres and party members. Some even betray national interests. In other words, slipping into individualism symbolises corruption of cadres’ and party members’ morality and dignity. It not only does harm to each individual but also seriously affects today’s Party building. Slipping into individualism can be viewed from following angles:

Individualism is an inner enemy or the enemy inside each cadre and party member. It’s obvious that, to become cadres and party members and to bring into play their leadership role over the masses, everyone has to undergo a process of careful training in every aspect, including dignity and capacity. To firmly uphold nature of revolutionaries, cadres and party members must train themselves all their life. However, if they do not preserve revolutionary morality, they are prone to individualism. If this happens, cadres and party members have been infected with one kind of very dangerous virus, which may cause hundreds of diseases ranging from greed, laziness to factionalism, localism, violation of the principle of democratic centralism, degradation in revolutionary ideals, and so on. Thus, those cadres and party members are no longer qualified to be leaders and loyal servants of people. In fact, part of cadres and party members fail to heighten their sense of responsibility, are less imbued with revolutionary ideals, decrease in willpower, slip into individualism, fail to match words with deeds, violate Party discipline and law.

Slipping into individualism weakens our Party from the inside both in political ideology, morality, organisation, and cadre. This occurs as an inevitability since our Party is likened to a living organism, in which each party member represents a cell of this organism. If each cell is healthy, the Party will be healthy, or, conversely, if each cell carries germs, i.e., individualism, the Party will become weak and incompetent. If there are many bad cells in the Party’s organism, sooner or later the Party will become rotten to the core and lose its leadership role.

Slipping into individualism places major obstacles to our people’s revolutionary cause, socialist building, and protection of the Fatherland. The Party leads the revolution by means of guidelines, policies, and vanguard, exemplary role of the corps of cadres and party members. People’s confidence in the Party is associated with their confidence in the corps of cadres and party members. Therefore, when slipping into individualism, cadres and party members are no longer trusted and supported by people. Their prestige and leadership effectiveness decrease, which can be used as a pretext for hostile forces and reactionaries to do deliberate damage to our Party.

It can be asserted that slipping into individualism is one of the most serious manifestations of degradation of cadres and party members, which has profound influence on Party building and rectification. To struggle against, get rid of, and eradicate individualism among cadres and party members require implementing the following solutions successfully.

First, education is to be regularly carried out to improve cadres’ and party members’ ideological awareness and political steadfastness. Slipping into individualism is a process of degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle. This process is attributed to many causes, most notably incorrect, insufficient perception of revolutionary morality and harmful nature of individualism as well as inconsistent political steadfastness. In fact, there are cadres and party members excellently performing their tasks and being appointed to high positions within the Party, State, and political system. However, slipping into individualism leads to degradation, breach of Party discipline and State law, and punishment. Consequently, regular education and propagation to raise ideological awareness and political steadfastness is the leading solution to facilitate cadres’ and party members’ deeper understanding of the role of revolutionary morality as the root of their training and task performance. Accordingly, cadres and party members must enhance self-study to raise their awareness of political theory and revolutionary morality; clearly realise manifestations and harmful nature of individualism towards cadres’ and party members’ training process and Party building.  Education and training of organisations are closely associated with each cadre’s and party member’s self-education and self-training. Moreover, they are requested to actively study and follow Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and style by means of daily concrete, practical deeds, thus upholding their political steadfastness and revolutionary ideals without slipping into individualism.

Second, it is necessary to intensify self-criticism and criticism and resolve to struggle against manifestations of individualism. Individualism is an inner enemy or one kind of very inimical germ inside each cadre’s and party member’s thought. Thus, only by adopting a resolute attitude can they get rid of it. Meanwhile, self-criticism and criticism are potent weapons to combat individualism and a matter of law in Party building and rectification, in which self-criticism is key to getting the stain out of each cadre and party member. Consequently, each of them has to heighten their sense of self-criticism and criticism; regard regular self-criticism as face washing every day; make time for self-reflection and correcting themselves from thinking, taking actions, words to deeds; resolutely struggle against manifestations of individualism in individuals, organisations, and comrades themselves. Thus, it is necessary to heighten sense of combat in self-criticism and criticism; overcome indulgence, avoidance, and fear of causing disagreement; resolutely struggle to remove manifestations of slipping into individualism, improving revolutionary morality of cadres and party members. Additionally, it is important to strengthen inspection and supervision of party organisation to strictly enforce Party discipline and resolutely struggle to defeat hostile forces’ plot to exploit shortcomings and weaknesses of the corps of cadres and party members to do damage to the Party.

Third, attention must be paid to raising cadres’ and party members’ responsibility to set an example and promote revolutionary morality. This is a vital solution, which serves directly to deal with cadres’ and party members’ manifestations of slipping into individualism, because setting example is one of the most important measures to cultivate revolutionary morality. President Ho Chi Minh used to tell cadres and party members that a living example was more valuable than hundreds of propaganda speeches. Cadres and party members wishing to set an example of morality must create internal momentum, refrain from slipping into individualism, and set an example of morality, lifestyle, and work accomplishment. To do so requires cadres and party members to heighten their sense of self-training of revolutionary morality anytime, anywhere, and in all their life. Therefore, each cadre and party member, especially the leading ones at all levels, must take the lead in following the Party’s regulations on setting example, most notably the Regulation No. 08-QĐi/TW, dated October 25th, 2018 of the Party Central Committee (12^th tenure) on cadres’ and party members’ responsibility to set an example and the Regulation No. 37-QĐ/TW dated October 25th, 2021 of the Party Central Committee (13^th tenure) on things that party members are not allowed to do. As for cadres and party members in Viet Nam People’s Army, they are requested to grasp and successfully implement the Resolution No. 847-NQ/QUTW, dated December 28^th, 2021 of the Party Central Committee on “Bringing into play fine dignity of Uncle Ho’s Soldiers, resolutely opposing individualism in the new situation.” Accordingly, it is necessary to realise the motto: “The higher echelons set example for the lower ones to follow” and the higher positions cadres may hold, the more vanguard role they must take.

Slipping into individualism is a manifestation of degradation, which is occurring among part of cadres and party members and making adverse impact on today’s Party building and rectification. Although it is easy to identify manifestations of individualism, the struggle to address it is extremely difficult and complex because it is deep-rooted in the corps of cadres and party members. To effectively combat this manifestation requires adopting many synchronous, drastic measures relating to both ideology, organisation, and cadre, in which strengthening of self-criticism, criticism, and responsibility to set an example and improve revolutionary morality among cadres and party members are core, enduring issues, contributing to the building of a truly pure Party, capable of successfully leading the construction and protection of the Fatherland in the new situation.

 Vietnam has made great efforts to care for about 700,000 children with disabilities, including measures to enhance the efficiency of policies supporting them.

Vietnam was the first country in Asia and the second in the world to ratify the International Convention on the Right of the Child in 1989, and the 118th signatory to the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007.

Since then, the position and role of persons with disabilities, especially children, have been improved, while the country’s legal system in the field has also become closer to the common norms of international law regarding children with disabilities with the promulgation of many policies, projects and programs.

The Constitution 2013 devotes one chapter to human rights with special regulations on the rights of children, including those with disabilities. Meanwhile, the Children Law 2016 has also created a fundamental legal framework to ensure the full observance of rights for all children, with stipulations more aligned with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Other laws have also been reviewed and updated to better meet the requirements of international practices and norms related to the rights of children and children with disabilities in particular.

Notably, the Law on Persons with Disabilities, which was adopted in 2010, marked an important milestone regarding the position of disabled children in society, showing the efforts and determination of the Party and State to support them in integrating into society. Supportive policies in social welfare, healthcare, education, vocational training, employment and culture-sport activities have also been promulgated to ensure that they have good access to care, protection and education services in the community.

Ministries, sectors and localities have also worked together in caring for children with disabilities by effectively implementing the policies and reporting feedback for the completion of the policies.

In order to improve the efficiency of the policies, especially in remote and mountainous areas, on October 29, 2018, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1438/QĐ-TTg approving a project to assist children with disabilities in accessing care, protection and education services in the community in the 2018-25 period.

The project set a target that by 2025, all children with disabilities access the necessary services and opportunities to practise their full rights. The project is entering the second phase with many specific goals.

However, so far, the public awareness of the rights of children with disabilities remains modest, while there is a lack of special schools providing care and education for children with disabilities, and nursing and vocational training centers for them have faced many difficulties in infrastructure and personnel.

In the future, in order to provide better care for children with disabilities, it is necessary to strengthen communication on the policies and laws regarding the rights of the children and raise public awareness of the responsibilities of families and society in ensuring children’s access to care, protection and education services in the community.

Further efforts should be made to complete the system of laws and policies to assist children with disabilities and enhance the capacity of officials and suppliers of services for children, and expand the network of supporting service suppliers for them.

State management on the work should also be strengthened, along with stricter inspections and monitoring over the implementation of the policies and laws.