Party General Secretary and State President To Lam stressed the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) should serve as the nucleus in protecting the Party's ideological foundation, actively combating erroneous and hostile viewpoints, while addressing the 10th National Congress of the VFF in Hanoi on October 17.
The congress also saw the attendance of Politburo members: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, and Permanent member of the Party Central Committee's Secretariat Luong Cuong, among others.
The three-day congress, themed "Solidarity - Democracy - Innovation - Creativity – Development”, have brought together a total of 1,052 delegates representing various classes, ethnic groups, religions, armed forces, overseas Vietnamese, and VFF officials at all levels.
The top leader said over the past 94 years, the VFF has grown stronger, affirming its role and mission in promoting the national tradition and the strength of great national unity.It has encouraged people to actively participate in patriotic movements, harnessing resources and creativity, and contributing to the successful implementation of the country's strategic tasks throughout historical periods, he said.
Party General Secretary and State President To Lam acknowledged and lauded the performance of VFF Committees at all levels and commended people from all strata of society for their strong spirit of patriotism and solidarity, response, support and efforts in implementing the Party's guidelines and the State's policies and laws, significantly contributing the country's important and turning-point achievements over the past years.
The leader underscored that it is the responsibility of the whole Party, people, and army, with the VFF playing the core role, to strongly inspire patriotism, the desire to make contributions, the spirit of self-reliance and confidence, as well as national pride, promoting the great strength from the great national solidarity bloc and combining the national strength with that of the era, thus fulfilling all targets.
Basically agreeing with the orientations, goals, and the action plan for the next tenure stated in the congress’ political report, Part General Secretary and State President To Lam pointed to the need to reach consensus on the position and special significance of the great national solidarity bloc as well as the urgent requirement and top priority to reinforce and promote it under the leadership of the Party.
This is one of the key solutions to bring the nation into the new era, he stressed.
The leader said that in the current period, the Front should strongly perform its key role and coordination with its member organisations to unite all classes and outstanding individuals, promoting the vanguard role of the working class, awakening the great potential of the peasants, intellectuals, and workers, ensuring high a consensus in perception, ideology and action, firmly adhering to the socialist goals and ideology, proactively carrying out people diplomacy activities, resolutely protecting national independence and sovereignty, and political and social stability, and building an increasingly prosperous and happy country.
He reminded the Front and its member organisations to show stronger performance in communications and education to make sure that all people understand, support, and implement the orientations and policy and laws of the Party and the State, clearly recognising the plots and tricks of hostile and reactionary forces to distort, drive a wedge into, and undermine the great national solidarity bloc.
The Front must be the nucleus in protecting the Party's ideological foundation and fighting against erroneous and hostile viewpoints, he added.
The leader said the highest goal is to serve people, urging the VFF and its member organisations to work harder to improve their living standards, particularly those of ethnic minorities and residents in remote, border, and island areas, former revolutionary bases, strategic regions, and areas with large religious populations.
The VFF and its member organisations should raise initiatives to all-level Party Committees and authorities, while mobilising donations in support of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, ensuring that no one is left behind, Party General Secretary and State President To Lam continued.
They were also asked to coordinate with all-level authorities to effectively address pressing social issues at the grassroots level, serving as a reliable pillar of people, conveying their concerns to Party Committees and authorities.
The top leader said the VFF should fulfill its role in negotiations and coordinate with its member organisations in social supervision and criticism, especially on matters of national interests and public welfare.
He asked them to play a more active role in encouraging the public to engage in the fight against wastefulness, corruption, and other negative phenomena, firstly in the efforts to ensure the success of the elections of the 16th NA and all-people People’s Councils for the 2026-2031 term.
The leader urged the VFF to revamp its operations, diversify mobilisation forms, and promote the role of scientists, experts, outstanding individuals, and overseas Vietnamese in national development, and requested all-level Party Committees and authorities to continue their coordination with the Front in serving the people.
In his opening remarks, Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and President of the 9th VFF Central Committee Do Van Chien underlined that the congress aims to make objective and comprehensive assessments of the situation of people of all classes and the great national solidarity bloc as well as the outcomes of the implementation of the 9th National VFF Congress for the 2019-2024 tenure, thus pointing out shortcomings and lessons.
At the same time, participants will sketch out orientations, objectives and tasks as well as the action program of the VFF for the 2024-2029 tenure, while electing a VFF Central Committee, Presidium, Standing Board, President, Vice President - General Secretary and Vice Presidents, and approving the adjustments and supplementations to the VFF Charter, said Mr. Do Van Chien.
The VFF leader expressed gratitude to President Ho Chi Minh who laid the foundation for the great national solidarity, and paid tribute to heroic martyrs, war veterans, revolutionaries, intellectuals, people from all religions and ethnics, and overseas Vietnamese for their contributions to the cause of Fatherland construction and defence.
He said that ahead of the 10th National Congress, VFF congresses at all levels were held in 10,597 communes, 704 districts and 63 cities and provinces.
At the events, people expressed their expectations that the Party and State will continue to design suitable policies to remove difficulties and bottlenecks to strongly develop the national economy, create more jobs and ensure stable income for people, while increasing investment in climate change response and natural disaster prevention and control, creating livelihoods, reducing poverty sustainably, especially in remote, border, island and ethnic minority-inhabited areas, promoting the application of advanced and modern technologies, speeding up administrative reform, strengthening the fight against corruption, negative phenomena and wastefulness, and encouraging individuals to contribute their intelligence and efforts to the cause of Fatherland construction and defence.
Mr. Do Van Chien expressed his hope that participants, with their highest consensus, joint brainpower and highest sense of responsibility, would contribute opinions on orientations, tasks and solutions to successful achieve all goals set by the congress.
Speaking at the opening session, Vice President and General Secretary of the 9th VFF Central Committee Nguyen Thi Thu Ha delivered a report highlighting its major activities.In the previous term, the front work continued to achieve significant and comprehensive results; the national great unity bloc was maintained, and the deep-rooted relationship and trust between the people and the Party and State were continuously strengthened.Patriotic emulation movements and major campaigns initiated or coordinated by the VFF, such as "All people unite to build new-style rural areas and civilised urban areas," "Vietnamese people prioritise using Vietnamese goods," "All people unite to combat Covid-19," and "For the poor - Leaving no one behind," continued to make significant impacts on society, helping inspire a spirit of competition, learning, and production, and foster collaboration across the community.
Hundreds of trillions of Vietnamese dong was mobilised from various resources at home and abroad through the Vietnam Fatherland Front system to support the construction of charitable houses, assist the poor, provide disaster relief, and implement social security initiatives.
In addition, the VFF Committees at all levels and its member organisations have always been a “reliable address” for listening to, sharing, and gathering the opinions and petitions of voters and the public to convey them to the Party, State, and relevant authorities.
Over 20,000 opinions and petitions from voters and citizens were reflected in the sessions of the National Assembly; and nearly 86,000 social consultation meetings and more than 200,000 supervision sessions were organised at various levels.
For the 2024-2029 term, the congress set forth six action programs, including enhancing communications and mobilisation efforts to gather people from all walks of life, strengthen social consensus, and promote the strength of the national great unity bloc; improving the quality and effectiveness of social supervision and feedback, democracy practice, and participation in the building of the Party and State; and encouraging people from all walks of life to engage in emulation and innovation, to effectively implement campaigns and movements.
The programs also focus on promoting the people's ownership and self-governance spirit, and building cohesive, prosperous, and happy residential communities; increasing the effectiveness of people-to-people diplomacy and overseas Vietnamese affairs; and continuing to innovate organisational structures, contents, and methods of operation, while enhancing the capacity of grassroots front officials.
