Speech by Politburo member, President of the Academy, and Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council in the opening ceremony of the 2022-2023 academic year

Prof,Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thang, Politburo member, President of the Academy, and Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council, makes a speech in the opening ceremony of the 2022-2023 academic year ------------------ Your Excellency Vo Van Thuong, Politburo member and Standing member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat, Dear representatives of ministries and central departments,leaders of political schools in cities and provinces under the central management on online portals nationwide, Dear all lecturers, officials, and students of the Academy, Amid the country’s celebration  of the new school year, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics today solemnly organizes the opening ceremony of the 2022-2023 academic year. The ceremony is held in-person at the Great Hall of the Academy and connected online with portals of its four affiliated academies and municipal and provincial political schools nationwide. On behalf of the Academy’s Party Committee, Board of Directors, and all the Academy’s staff, I would like to express my gratitude to the Politburo and the Secretariat, especially to Mr. Vo Van Thuong, Politburo member and Standing member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat for the deep interest for the Academy – the school undertaking the mission of training and fostering middle and high-ranking leaders and managers of the Party and the State. I would like to warmly welcome Mr. Vo Van Thuong who attends and delivers a speech in the opening ceremony today as well as former leaders of the Party and State, delegates, and lecturers. Particularly, I would be delighted to congratulate 3,455 students of 71 full-time classes of advanced political theory (in the 2022-2023 academic year) in the whole system of the Academy and 20 students of the advanced political theory class for Lao People’s Revolutionary Party who participate in the opening ceremony today. I wish you full of health and happiness in life as well as many achievements in your study and work. Dear comrades, During the past academic year, Vietnam had implemented the policy of flexibility and safety to adapt and effectively control the Covid-19 pandemic, gradually transitioning to a normal state in order to accelerate socio-economic recovery and development. Together with people, institutions and organizations in the country, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics had proactively and actively made appropriate adjustments in training and fostering activities, including switching from complete online teaching to a flexible combination between in-person and online teachings, and now returning to complete in-person teaching. With the motto “students are the centre, the school is the foundation, and lecturers are the driving force”, the Academy’s Party Committee and the Board of Directors, leaders of its affiliated academies, institutes, and functional departments have given close, synchronous, and effective directions to implement training and fostering classes as planned. At the same time, leaders of the Academy ensured the continuity of innovation and constant improvement of the quality of political theory training and fostering as required in Resolution No. 32-NQ/TW dated 26th May 2014 by the Politburo, and in accordance with Regulation No. 57-QD/TW dated 8th February 2022 by the Secretariat on subjects, standards, and decentralization of political theory training. In the 2021-2022 academic year, the entire Academy successfully organized 86 full-time advanced political theory classes with 4,189 students. The Academy also collaborated with localities to organize training courses for 1,021 Secretaries of district-level Party Committees, Heads and Deputy Heads of Commissions of the Party Committees in centrally-governed cities and provinces. The Party Central Committee, ministries, departments, and localities recognized and highly appreciated this training and fostering work of the Academy, which has outstanding results as shown in the following aspects: (1) - The Academy actively put a new set of advanced political theory textbooks into use as well as supplemented and updated these textbooks with new content set out in the Documents of the 13th National Party Congress, new domestic and international theoretical and practical issues. The training programs of the Academy were re-structured to facilitate interactions and discussions between lecturers and students. In addition, the programs focused on theory research, practice summary with emphasis on responses to new emerging practical issues. Particularly, the Academy actively carried out research and developed training programs to update students with new knowledge. Specifically, the Academy completed the development of the fostering programs for alternative members of the 13th Party Central Committee; conducting research and compilation of documents for political theory training programs for chairpersons of People’s Committees of centrally-governed cities and provinces; studying and developing new advanced political theory training programs for cadres of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. (2) - The Academy synchronously issued and consistently implemented a set of Regulations, consisting of: Regulation on Admission and Training of Advanced political theory, Regulation on Admission and Training for Doctoral degree, Regulation on Admission and Training for postgraduate degree, Regulation on the management of international students, and Regulations on online training. This is a very important factor to strengthen academic disciplines and focus on improving the training quality comprehensively at both stages of knowledge transfer and training on political quality, ethics and lifestyle as well as ruling culture, leadership and management styles for all the students. Simultaneously, this has contributed to innovating teaching methods and evaluating student learning and training outcomes in a realistic and effective way, thereby overcoming perfunctory learning and laziness of studying political theory. (3) - The Academy always attached scientific research closely to training and fostering work, considering the promotion of theory research, practice summary, and knowledge sharing as a crucial foundation to continuously innovate and improve the quality of training and fostering political theory. The Academy’s efforts to promote scientific research has been gradually spreading positively and widely in the entire system of political schools, thereby making a major contribution to improving the quality of cadre training and fostering in various localities in the country. (4) - Implementing Resolution No. 35-NQ/TW dated 22nd October 2018 by the Politburo effectively, the Academy incorporated the work of protecting the Party’s ideological foundation and fighting against hostile and wrong views in the new situation as key content into its training and fostering programs. Currently, there is an orderly routine that right after the opening ceremony of a new academic year, during “The Student Week”, students of advanced political theory will listen to reports on the protection of the Party’s ideological foundation and the fight against hostile and wrong views and then, according to the Regulation on training, write about what they have learned. Specially, implementing tasks assigned directly by the Central Steering Committee of Project 35, the Standing member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat, and Head of the Central Steering Committee of Project 35, the Academy played a pivotal role in actively organizing and launching the second writing contest on protecting the Party’s ideological foundation and fighting against hostile and wrong views in 2022. The participation of cadres, lecturers, and students of the entire Academy and political schools also played an important role in creating a far-reaching impact of this contest.[1] In the past academic year, the Academy overcame the difficulties caused by the complicated situation of the Covid-19 pandemic and achieved outstanding results in training and fostering activities, scientific research, and policy advisory. Moreover, the Academy obtained positive and impressive results in modernization of facilities, international cooperation (after a period of stagnation), financial planning, the Party work, activities of the trade and youth unions, programs to repay favours, and support for localities and families in difficult situations. These contributed to building and enhancing the exemplary and modern image with identity of Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics as well as spreading to the entire system. The aforementioned results were accomplished thanks to the constant direction and attention of the Politburo and the Secretariat; the support and assistance from central commissions, ministries, departments, and localities. Particularly, the Academy had always received the attention and direct guidance from the General Secretary and the Standing member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat in doing its tasks. It is also because of great efforts of generations of cadres, lecturers, and students who have inherited and promoted the glorious tradition of 73 years of building and developing of the Party school named after beloved President Ho Chi Minh while overcoming difficulties to complete all the tasks assigned by the Party, the State, and the People. On behalf of the Academy’s Party Committee and Board of Directors, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of you. Distinguished delegates, The 2022-2023 academic year is the pivotal year in implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress. With the motto “Proactiveness - Synchronization - Breakthrough - Discipline - Quality - Efficiency” and quick reverting to the face-to-face teaching and studying in the normal state, the Academy determines to focus on the following key tasks: First, the Academy continuously innovates and updates textbooks, teaching and fostering methods to closely adhere to requirements of the Party building and the construction of a contingent of cadres, especially those at strategic level. They must be able to satisfy the practical requirements by performing tasks of socio-economic recovery and development to ensure security, safety, and social security after the Covid-19 pandemic. All of these tasks must be done based on resolutions, conclusions, and directives approved by the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat of the 13th term. Furthermore, the Academy strictly implements the policy of unified political theory training from the central to local levels. The Academy also concentrates on research and development of fostering courses to provide members of the 13th Party Central Committee and for cadres who are planned for appointment for the Party’s leadership positions at strategic level (in the 2026-2030 term) with the latest knowledge updates. Besides, the Academy completes the compilation of documents of political theory training programs for chairpersons of Peple’s Committees of centrally-governed cities and provinces. The Academy also attaches special importance to building training and fostering programs for cadres of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party in line with new practices. The Academy continues to effectively implement the projects approved by the Prime Minister in order to standardize, unify, and synchronize its training and fostering programs under the motto “basic, systematic, practical, and modern” associated with the framework designed for cadres’ capabilities, professional titles, and positions. This contributes to building a contingent of cadres at all levels, especially those at the strategic level who are qualified, proficient, prestigious, on a par with their duties, and able to work in an international environment. For full-time advanced political theory pilot classes in localities, the Academy will conduct a survey and only open classes in selected political schools that soon meet standards and ensure facilities for effective teaching, studying, and training activities. The Academy also establishes a mechanism to manage and collaborate with Party Committees in centrally-governed cities and provinces, and political schools to adopt regulations to strengthen the management of diligence and training of students in accordance with the training regulation. Moreover, the Academy will coordinate with the Central Organization Committee and localities, which have pilot classes, to have preliminary review and evaluate results after three years of implementation and report to the Party Central Secretariat. On this occasion, I also suggest that Party Committees, departments, and units do not assign any tasks to students who are sent to study full-time at the Academy, especially those in full-time pilot classes in localities (even outside of the school hours) so that they can devote all their time to studying and practicing. Second, the Academy will actively coordinate with ministries, central commissions and departments, and local Party Committees across the country to effectively implement activities of practice summary and theory research in association with personnel training and fostering work, policy advisory, and support for capacity building for political schools. Additionally, the Academy will carry out the national key scientific program “Research, application, and creative development of Ho Chi Minh’s thought in the cause of national construction, development, and defense in the renovation period (from 1986 until now, with orientation to 2030 and vision towards 2045). The Academy will also continue to implement the work of protecting the Party’s ideological foundation and fighting against hostile and wrong views with new, diverse, and effective methods that focus on integrating the content of the Resolution No. 35-NQ/TW into curriculum, textbooks, and lectures in its training system. Third, the Academy attaches special importance to improving the quality of its lecturers and researchers through the implementation of the project “Developing the contingent of experts and scientists at Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics until 2030 with a vision to 2045”. This project aims to  develop a network of experts who are skillfull and proficient in political theory, with strong political bravery and practical knowledge. The Academy also completes a project on training political theory lecturers, which will be submitted to the Secretariat for review and approval, to have sufficient high-quality lecturers and soon overcome the shortage of lecturers of political theory in the Party school system, training schools for cadres of ministries, commissions, departments and organizations at central level. Fourth, the Academy continues to promote and expand international cooperation activities in cadre training and fostering and scientific research; focus on building international knowledge sharing programs for the cause of national construction and development; advance the work on political schools, especially supporting them to meet standards according to the planned schedule; effectively perform the finance work and upgrade facilities, technical infrastructure, and digitalization of the entire Academy. Dear students, First of all, you need to be aware of honor, pride, and responsibility to study and train at the highest ranked Party school to supplement knowledge and skills, develop personalities and qualities of leaders and managers; arrange time and concentrate on studying; abide by training rules and regulations of the Academy to successfully finish courses. Distinguished delegates, Constantly brightening up and promoting the tradition of Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, every cadre, lecturer, civil servant, official, and student today will be always progressive to learn, improve professional capabilities, and train moral qualities. In every position, they will be always exemplary and uphold the sense of responsibility; and resolutely fight against all negative acts that may cause damages to the noble and exemplary image of our sacred Party school. They will also continuously innovate working methods and styles towards more activeness and creativity in order to accomplish all the assigned tasks. Once again, on behalf of the entire staff of the Academy, I am truly thankful for Politburo member and Standing member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat Vo Van Thuong who attends this ceremony and directs all aspects of the Academy’s work. We hope to continue receiving your attention and support in the coming time. On this occasion, I would like to express my gratitude and respectfully request the Politburo, the Secretariat, ministries, central commissions and departments, local Party committees and local authorities in the whole country to keep assisting, helping, and enabling the Academy to successfully complete all of its duties. I wish leaders, former leaders, delegates, lecturers, civil servants, officials, and students full of health, happiness, and success. Thank you very much!