Orientation on the completion of institution, policy and mobilization of resources to build a Vietnamese culture of “nation, democracy, humanity, and science”

President Ho Chi Minh said, "For survival and the purpose of life, humans created language, writing, ethics, laws, science, religion, literature, art, and tools for daily life related to clothing, food, accommodation, and methods of use. All these inventions constitute culture. Culture is the synthesis of all activities and their expressions that humans have generated to adapt to the needs and demands of survival"⁽¹⁾. The Communist Party of Vietnam affirmed, "Vietnamese culture is the fruit of thousands of years of creative labor and resilient struggle for national construction and defense by Vietnamese ethnic groups. Vietnamese culture is the result of exchanges and absorption of the quintessence of many of the world’s civilizations to constantly improve themselves. Vietnamese culture has forged the soul, spirit, and mettle of Vietnam, spotlighting the glorious history of the nation.”⁽²⁾

Fully aware of the position and importance of culture, the Communist Party of Vietnam, from its inception, inherited the traditional cultural values of the nation, absorbed the essence of human culture, and, while leading the Vietnamese revolution, consistently developed orientations and policies on building and developing Vietnamese culture and people. The 1943 "Outline of Vietnamese Culture", which advocated the development of Vietnamese culture with the principles of Nationalization - Scientifiztion Methodology - Popularization, met the requirements and demands of the revolution in a timely fashion, rallied and encouraged the people, especially intellectuals and artists, to actively participate in the revolution. It brought into full play the role of culture and motivated the nation in the struggle for independence and freedom, contributing significantly to the historic victory of the August Revolution in 1945, the Dien Bien Phu victory in 1954, and the Spring Victory in 1975, which culminated in the liberation of South Vietnam and national reunification.

Since Vietnam entered the period of peace, independence, unification, and national construction and defense, especially since the renewal period, the Communist Party of Vietnam has further developed its theoretical ideology on culture and has paid due attention to the development of Vietnamese culture and people. It has issued numerous resolutions, directives, and conclusions on building and developing these elements, notably the Resolution adopted at the 5th plenum of the 8th Party Central Committee on "Building and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity," which focuses on building healthy ideology, ethics, lifestyle, and cultural environment. The Platform on national construction in the period of transition to socialism, which was supplemented in 2011, continues to emphasize the need to "build an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity, which develops comprehensively with the principle of unity in diversity, and deeply embraces the humane, democratic, and progressive spirit. It is crucial to ensure the deep integration of culture into all aspects of social life so that it becomes a solid spiritual foundation and important source of internal strength for development"⁽³⁾.

Reviewing the 15 years of implementing the Resolution of the 5th plenum of the 8th Party Central Committee, the 11th Party Central Committee issued Resolution 33-NQ/TW, dated June 9, 2014, on "Building and developing Vietnamese culture and people meeting the requirements of sustainable national development." The resolution continues to underline the requirement of "Building  Vietnamese culture and people that develop comprehensively towards the true, the good, and the beautiful, and are deeply imbued with the spirit of the nation, humanity, democracy, and science. Culture should truly become a solid spiritual foundation of society and the essential internal strength to ensure sustainable development and national defense for the goals of prosperous people, and a strong, democratic, equitable, and civilized country." "Culture must be placed on an equal footing with the economy, politics, and society." "Building and developing culture is the entire population’s cause led by the Party, managed by the State, with the people being the creative subject, and intellectuals playing an important role."⁽⁴⁾

The 13th  Party Congress continues to highlight the important position and  role of culture and people during the new period of rapid and sustainable national development by emphasizing the need to “Strongly rekindle patriotism, self-reliance, great national unity, and the aspirations for a prosperous and happy country.”⁽⁵⁾ It underscores the importance of “Fully tapping the potential of the people, considering the people to be the center, the subject, the most important resource, and the goal of development; as well as taking the values of Vietnamese culture and people as the foundation and an important internal strength to ensure sustainable development⁽⁶⁾.  It is necessary to “Comprehensively and synchronously develop culture, promote the values ​​of the nation, and absorb the cultural quintessence of humankind toward the creation of momentum for socio-economic development and international integration.”⁽⁷⁾

The Communist Party of Vietnam has pursued a consistent and steadfast orientation and  policy on building and developing Vietnamese culture and people which have gradually been supplemented, developed, and fine-tuned, contributing significantly to the Party's leadership in all victories of the Vietnamese revolution.

Before Vietnam embarked on the renewal process in 1986, a new democratic culture - the national salvation culture - characterized by the principles of nationalization, scientifization, and popularization had begun to take shape, resulting in many achievements during the resistance wars and national construction. It promoted patriotism, wisdom, and creativity of the people, provided an important spiritual driving force for the great national unity bloc, and contributed to the success of the resistance wars. It encouraged and inspired people from all walks of life to actively respond to patriotic emulation, contributing to the building of a new socialist life and new socialist people.

Over the past 35 years of renewal, the Party's orientation and policy on building and developing Vietnamese culture and people have been enshrined in the Constitution and specified in State policies and laws. State and social resources allocated to culture have increased and international cultural exchanges and cooperation have continued to expand. Cultural workers have been trained and further developed. The spiritual life has improved and become more diverse and people have enjoyed more cultural products and services with higher quality. Many traditional cultural values of ethnic communities have been promoted while new cultural values have emerged and have been integrated step by step into the daily life of the people.

However, Vietnam also faces many challenges and shortcomings that need to be promptly addressed. They include cultural pollution with complex developments; fewer new works with high ideological, artistic, and scientific values; less effective and efficient cultural management which results in the inability to keep pace with development; slow and inconsistent institutionalization of Party policies and viewpoints; inadequate qualifications of leaders and managers at all levels in the cultural sector who are not commensurate with the requirements and tasks of the new period; and limited, scattered, and ineffective investment in culture. Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized that the weaknesses and shortcomings in cultural and human development over recent times have had an adverse impact on socio-economic development and the building of the Vietnamese people and cultural environment⁽⁸⁾.

The Party's guidelines and orientations need to be institutionalized and solidified into cultural policies and laws that are practical and visionary. This approach aims to remove barriers, stimulate creativity, unleash productive forces, enhance competitiveness, and provide observable momentum for cultural development.

The Party's policy and orientation on building and developing Vietnamese culture and people, especially those outlined in the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, must be  extensively and fully understood. It is important to define the building and development of Vietnamese culture and people as the focal tasks as well as to accelerate research on and implementation of the systems of national values, cultural values, family values, and standards of the Vietnamese people in the new era. The goals and tasks of building and developing Vietnamese culture and people should go hand in hand with the socio-economic development goals and tasks of each sector, region, locality, agency and unit.

Focus should be placed as follows:

First, accelerating the process of institutionalizing the Party's guidelines, viewpoints, and orientations into specific and feasible laws and policies on cultural development. There is a need to establish the mindset and methods on cultural management which ensure socio-economic effectiveness to achieve the ultimate goal of serving the interests of the community and the people. It is necessary to complete cultural-economic policies and implement fundamental solutions to develop a healthy cultural market and the cultural industry. Efforts should be made to create many cultural products with high artistic value which inspire and encourage the renewal process and national development and which spread the values of the Party, the nation, and the people of Vietnam.

Second, continuing to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management with regard to culture, focusing on translating the Party's policies and viewpoints into specific and practical programs and projects. Constant renovation in leadership and management methods is crucial for cultural development and for creative and effective implementation of related strategies and solutions suitable to each target group, sector, area, region, and locality. Another task is developing digital culture in line with national digital transformation.

Third, comprehensively and sufficiently mobilizing human and financial resources such as the state budget and private investment, contributions from the business community, organizations, and individuals (both domestically and internationally) for cultural development.

Regarding human resources, attention should be paid to planning, training, and nurturing artists and artistic talents; to creating favorable conditions for artists to promote their creativity and produce high-quality works; and to developing appropriate policies on employing and training competent cultural personnel at all levels.

Concerning financial resources, the focus should be on resolving difficulties and obstacles related to mechanisms and policies on investment for cultural activities. It is necessary to increase investment for culture, modernize investment mechanisms, and attract financial resources from various sectors for cultural development. Importance should be attached to building key cultural and artistic works and developing new, modern culture and art institutions, focusing on the challenging, unusual, high-level, and traditional areas, in line the socialist-oriented market economy. It is essential to creatively implement the socialization policy and to mobilize various sources of investment for cultural and human development, aiming for the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage values.

In response to the demands of life and the national development process towards prosperity and happiness, culture must undergo vigorous transformation to fulfill the mission of "lighting the path for the nation," contributing visibly to rapid and sustainable national development. Therefore, cultural improvement is both an aspiration and an urgent political task.

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(1) Ho Chi Minh’s Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, Vol. 3, p. 458
(2) Resolution 03-NQ/TW, dated July 16, 1998, of the 5th plenum of the 8th Party Central Committee on “Building and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity”

(3) Documents of the 11th National Party Congress, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, pp. 75, 76
(4) Resolution 33-NQ/TW, dated June 9, 2014, of the 9th plenum of the 11th Party Central Committee on “Building and developing Vietnamese culture and people meeting the requirements of sustainable national development”
(5), (6), (7) Documents of the 13th National Party Congress, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, Vol. I, pp. 110, 215, 216, 262
(8) “Rigorous efforts made to build, preserve, and promote the distinctive values of an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity” by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Communist Review, No. 979, December, 2021, p. 9

This article was published in the Communist Review No. 1006 (January 2023)