2024 is the year that the country continues to achieve many achievements, the year of many important events, shaping the future development of the country.
Implementing the revolution of streamlining the organizational apparatus
The year 2024 has witnessed important changes in the country. Starting with the consolidation of key leadership positions of the Party and State, along with the determination to bring the country into a new era.
It is an era of development, prosperity and prosperity under the leadership and rule of the Communist Party of Vietnam. The goal by 2030 is for Vietnam to become a developing country with modern industry and high average income. By 2045, it will become a developed socialist country with high income.
Even in the most difficult times, the Party Central Committee, with the core leadership being the Politburo and the Secretariat, has always maintained solidarity, unity and close coordination in leadership and direction.
We must be truly united, truly exemplary, wholeheartedly devoted to the common cause - This is the message and requirement that key leaders of the Party and State always emphasize.
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Leaders congratulated Comrade To Lam on being elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam in August 2024 - Photo: VGP
From the perspective of political science, the Vietnamese political system this year has made the right moves, meeting the inevitable and objective requirements that reality demands.
This year, the entire political system is operating with a new spirit, a new speed to create new motivations, new efficiency to prepare to bring the country into a new era.
Bringing the country into a new era, an era of the Vietnamese people's rise, is a call to more than 100 million Vietnamese people, the Party's will meets the people's heart, with the determination to build a strong Vietnam, with a prosperous and happy people.
This is a period of streamlining the apparatus of the political system that is being carried out on an unprecedented scale, affecting the entire political system, every cadre, party member, civil servant, public employee and worker.
Resolute action, without hesitation from the Central to the localities, even though this is a very sensitive issue. From the Party bloc, the National Assembly bloc, the Government bloc, the Fatherland Front bloc and mass organizations are being arranged and streamlined according to the motto "Running while queuing".
Each task has a specific implementation progress and completion date and report. Since the beginning of the Doi Moi process, our country's political system has undergone 4 times of restructuring and streamlining the apparatus, but never before has such a difficult task been organized and implemented on a large scale, with such a profound impact as this time, true to the meaning of the word revolution.
This is considered the ripe time to carry out the revolution of streamlining the apparatus for the country's development. With the achievements of nearly 40 renovations, our country has enough position and strength, experience and lessons from practice to carry out the second renovation. Because this is an inevitable objective requirement of the country's reality. To liberate all resources and production capacity, it is necessary to carry out the revolution of the apparatus organization of the political system, to change national governance in the direction of optimizing the effectiveness of State management, saving resources and modernizing the administrative apparatus.
Yagi - The storm that went down in history
The heat wave opened the door to a series of severe natural disasters in 2024. This April has become the hottest April in the past 50 years. With 110 record-breaking temperatures, for the first time in history, all three regions experienced scorching heat during the April 30 - May 1 holiday.
After the heat wave, landslides have devastated mountains in Ha Giang, Yen Bai, and Lao Cai as heavy rains continued to pour down throughout June and July. Never before has Ha Giang seen so many landslides as this year. Half of a mountain in Bac Me district collapsed, killing 11 people in just a few minutes.
In Quang Binh, heavy rains and severe flooding caused by storm Tra Mi (storm No. 6) also killed 12 people, and nearly 34,500 houses were submerged in water. This is the second largest flood in the past 4 years, after the flood in October 2020.
The most haunting is the series of natural disasters caused by super typhoon Yagi - typhoon No. 3 in the North. Tens of thousands of trees were knocked down in Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Hanoi, widespread floods from the coast to the highlands, then floods from the highlands to the plains, the coast, the largest in the past 30 years and landslides, flash floods especially serious in Lao Cai, Yen Bai ... took the lives of 345 people.
Lang Nu after the terrible landslide, flash flood
In Lang Nu, Phuc Khanh commune, Bao Yen district, Lao Cai province, after the terrible landslide, flash flood on the fateful morning of September 10, 2024, the peaceful land nestled among the majestic high mountains of the Northwest region became devastated and ruined.
Until now, when Typhoon Yagi has passed for more than 3 months, many lands are still in ruins and the consequences have not been completely overcome, the pain of loss has not yet subsided.
Life continues to revive after the seemingly insurmountable flood. 40 stilt houses have been inaugurated on Sim hill, a testament to national solidarity to help the people of Nu village start a new life.
The national flag and the words "Towards happiness" at the center of the resettlement area are shaped from 6,000 flower roots, representing the optimism and hope of the people here.
Yagi will certainly be a storm that will go down in history, because of the extremely serious damage it caused to 26 provinces and cities in the North of our country and many other Southeast Asian countries.
Storm No. 3 also holds the record for being the fastest storm to intensify in the history of Vietnam Meteorology, taking only about 2 days after entering the East Sea, the storm increased from level 8 to super storm level 16, gusting over level 17.
When it entered the northern mainland, the storm caused a series of unprecedentedly severe natural disasters. For more than half a day, the storm's winds devastated over 26 northern provinces and cities. Quang Ninh and Hai Phong were the places that suffered the strongest storm winds of level 13-14, gusting up to level 17, equivalent to wind speeds of 220 km/h.
The storm's large humid cloud circulation also caused an unusually heavy rain in the North. 83/84 stations recorded rainfall 4-6 times higher than the average of many years, with some places measuring over 700 mm of rainfall in just 2 days. The rain was so heavy that it caused widespread, historic floods in the North. The Thao River, Cau River, Ninh Co River, Kinh Mon River, Gua River, and Tra Ly River experienced historic floods.
With all those terrible floods happening, it's hard to believe that La Nina - the phenomenon that is predicted to cause a lot of rain after El Nino - has not happened yet. This transition phase between El Nino and La Nina is really harsh. In the Northwest Pacific region, there have been 3-4 storms appearing at the same time, then continuously entering the East Sea. This phenomenon can still happen in 2025, because this year, the Earth's surface temperature has increased beyond the symbolic threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, causing the sea water temperature to increase, making it easier for storms to form and intensify faster.
Strong super typhoons like Yagi or Helen are also top concerns, as the Earth continues to warm. Scientists have compared warm sea water to fuel for tropical storms. If the Earth's surface temperature increases by an average of 2 degrees Celsius, the wind speed of storms will increase by 10%. The frequency of unusually heavy rains of hundreds of mm falling in one day has also increased. Although only localized, they have caused serious landslides and flash floods such as in Ha Giang or Valencia, Spain.
As a country that has "protected itself from storms in the morning and from the sun and fire in the afternoon" for many generations, each of us Vietnamese has the ability to flexibly respond to natural disasters. However, adapting to natural disasters caused by the negative impacts of climate change in a systematic way, connecting each individual with the community, with villages, hamlets, provinces, cities and the national level is still a long journey with many difficulties and problems that need to be overcome soon.
Vietnam's economy in the face of "headwinds"
Typhoon Yagi can be considered the historical storm that caused the greatest damage ever. Yet, overcoming difficulties, many people from Party and State leaders, civil servants, public employees, laborers, entrepreneurs, workers, and farmers have tried their best to help their families, organizations, businesses, and the country achieve good economic development results.
A number of international organizations have assessed that Vietnam has made extraordinary efforts to overcome the consequences of storm No. 3 and they have placed their trust in the resilience of the Vietnamese economy against the "headwinds".
Agricultural trade surplus and recovery in other commodity export markets have brought this year's total export turnover towards the 800 billion USD mark, the highest ever, up 15% compared to last year and nearly 2.5 times higher than the target. This is the 9th consecutive year that export turnover is higher than import, about 25 billion USD.
After 4 years of struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, this year, the number of foreign tourists coming to our country is expected to reach 18 million, an increase of 43% compared to last year, equal to the level before the Covid-19 pandemic. Flights from Vietnam to the world and then bringing the world to Vietnam continuously take off.
This year is also a successful year for Vietnam in attracting foreign investment capital with over 32 billion USD, putting Vietnam in the group of 15 developing countries attracting the largest source of this capital in the world. The disbursed capital - a measure of the efficiency of this capital flow - is estimated at about 25 billion USD, an increase of nearly 9% compared to the same period last year - the highest disbursement level in the past 5 years.
Vietnam has attracted the attention of the whole world, after the global technology corporation NVIDIA cooperated to establish 2 artificial intelligence centers in Vietnam, making Vietnam 1 of 3 global artificial intelligence research and development centers of NVIDIA.
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Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and NVIDIA Chairman Jensen Huang witnessed the signing and handover of the Agreement between Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung - representing the Vietnamese Government and Mr. Jay Puri, Executive Vice President of NVIDIA Global Operations - Photo: VGP
Despite many difficulties, many domestic enterprises continue to promote national spirit, self-reliance and self-reliance to capture domestic market share. In particular, for the first time, a domestic automobile manufacturer has surpassed all long-standing competitors in the industry, capturing the largest market share, creating a proud milestone for the Vietnamese automobile industry and the world automobile industry.
The rise of industrial, scientific and technological corporations with great ambitions and aspirations for development will help domestic enterprises continue to contribute to sustainable economic growth, playing an important role in the new era - the era of the Vietnamese people's rise.
Roads leading the country into a new era
With political determination, flexibility in direction and management, and the tireless efforts of tens of thousands of workers and engineers on major national construction projects, especially the North-South Expressway, by the end of this year, our country will have over 2,000 km of expressways.
The 13th National Party Congress set a target of 3,000 km of expressways nationwide by 2025; and 5,000 km of expressways by 2030 to create new space and momentum for development. The competitive atmosphere is taking place at the construction sites of the North-South Expressway Project, phase 2, which is over 700 km long, to achieve the goal of completing 3,000 km of expressways before December 31 next year.
Evidence shows that there have been large, important projects completed in record time thanks to the combined strength of solidarity, the strength of the entire political system and the people's determination. The 500kV line 3 project from Quang Trach to Pho Noi is an example.
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The 500kV line circuit 3 has been completed and is eligible for energization of the entire line, creating a new "miracle" for Vietnam's electricity industry - Photo: VGP
The construction site of the 500kV Circuit 3 Project in the places known as "Rain Pan Fire Bag" not only has the orange shirts of the electrical engineers, but also the green shirts of Uncle Ho's soldiers, of the police force, of the shirts of mass organizations such as the Youth Volunteers... Especially the unanimous determination of the people in the 9 provinces where the project passes through. All are ready to give up their land, their birthplace for many generations to facilitate the organization of the project's construction.
If the 500KV line is the lifeline carrying electricity to all parts of the country, the high-speed railway that has just been approved for investment will be the lifeline, creating a lever for the Vietnamese economy to grow.
The project will create a huge construction market of 33.5 billion USD, while promoting the development of the railway industry. This is an opportunity for domestic enterprises to affirm their position and internal strength, confidently creating new miracles.
With a speed of 350km/h of the high-speed train, it will only take people 5 and a half hours to travel from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, 6 times faster than the current railway. Fast and modern, the high-speed railway on the North-South axis will shorten the distance between localities and regions, contributing to reducing infrastructure pressure in large cities.
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High-speed trains not only shorten geographical distances and travel time between localities, but are also a revolution in our country's 100-year-old railway industry. This will also be one of the ways to bring the country into a new era.
The first time the digital production method is established
In the era of national development, along with physical infrastructure such as transportation infrastructure, electricity and water infrastructure, the development of digital infrastructure is also an important factor.
If in the past, there were many 2G phones on display in these glass cabinets, now they have completely disappeared. Instead, there are 4G phones, mainly smartphones. Vietnam's official shutdown of 2G waves this year not only helps free up bandwidth for old technology, switching to newer, higher technologies such as 4G, 5G, but also contributes to promoting people to participate in the digital environment, enjoying the benefits that the internet brings.
he year 2024 marks an important milestone when, for the first time, the digital production method is established. The productive force is a harmonious combination of humans and artificial intelligence; data becomes an important means of production; at the same time, production relations also have profound changes, especially in the form of ownership and distribution of digital means of production. Resolution No. 57 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation was issued in the last days of the year, demonstrating the strategic vision and determination of the Party in promoting science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation.
Many online public services, including full-process online public services, continue to be deployed. Vietnam expands the pilot of Electronic Health Book and issuance of Judicial Records via VNeID nationwide.
Purifying the Party and the political system to develop the country
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In recent years, the work of Party building and rectification, along with the fight against corruption and negativity, has made a strong impression, with a series of major cases brought to trial. This year, that spirit has not only continued, but also never stopped. A clear proof is that Party committees at all levels and Party cells have disciplined 410 Party organizations and more than 17,500 Party members during the year. The Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat disciplined 26 Party organizations and 71 Party members. These figures demonstrate a strong determination in the work of purifying and strengthening the Party organization.
Never before has the Politburo disciplined so many high-ranking Party officials as this year. It is clear that all officials and Party members are equal before Party discipline.
The Central Committee is disciplined, sets an example, and localities strictly implement. Many provinces, including the Provincial Party Secretary, the Provincial People's Committee Chairman, and many members of the Provincial Party Executive Committee have been disciplined by the Party and criminally prosecuted.
Corrupt and negative acts in various fields have been discovered, investigated and strictly handled with the motto "handling one case to warn the whole region, the whole field", and the maximum amount of misappropriated assets have been recovered.
Over the past year, many officials have continued to strictly accept political responsibility, voluntarily resign, and admit their shortcomings when they have made mistakes. However, this has not weakened the Party, but on the contrary, has strengthened the trust of officials, Party members and people in the Party. Everyone hopes that the Party will continue to strictly implement the work of preventing and combating corruption, waste and negativity, in order to achieve the goal of "cleaning up the Party and the political system, to develop the country".
That belief was also most clearly demonstrated on the day that our entire Party, people and army bid farewell to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong - a great intellect and talent of the Vietnamese revolution, who lived his entire life for the country and the people.
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General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong - a great intellectual, a great talent of the Vietnamese revolution, living his whole life for the country and the people
People from all over the country, international friends... all shed tears, mourning a great personality, a person who always considered "Honor is the most sacred and noble thing", a communist soldier who always upheld his principles, lived his whole life for the country, for the people, "impartial and impartial".
Stormy with financial investors
In the past year, stormy weather also spread to financial investors. The unpredictable fluctuations of the markets have negatively impacted investors.
Low capital, no need for much technology, quick profits are the sweet advertising words that have caused people with a little capital in savings or loans to suffer losses because they have participated in online investment floors.
According to Trip A's survey, Vietnam is one of the 2nd countries in the world with the largest digital currency (also known as virtual currency) transaction value, equivalent to hundreds of billions of USD each year.
Before money could make money, it was gone. Only then did we realize that it turned out to be a scam. Because in Vietnam, digital currency is an asset that is not regulated by policies or regulations, not recognized, but also not prohibited, a series of virtual currency exchanges have been created by subjects to defraud investors.
In July, the CBP virtual currency trading line with a value of up to thousands of billions of VND was dismantled, about 5,000 victims were recorded.
Not only virtual currency, many investors are overwhelmed by self-proclaimed financial experts, international stock investors such as Pho Duc Nam nicknamed Mr. Pips on the social network platform tiktok. Villas, supercars, money to spend, a lavish life like a king or queen are delicious baits to lure unlucky people into traps.
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Portrait of TikToker Mr Pips Pho Duc Nam
2,700 investors became victims, 5,200 billion VND in assets were seized. All up/down transactions on 22 exchanges were completely controlled by scammers, with thousands of employees and hundreds of staged scam scenarios.
Thinking that investing in foreign stock exchanges was easier to profit than domestic stocks, thinking it was real investment but it was actually a scam.
The storm in the world's markets has directly affected domestic stock investors.
The USD interest rate has always been high, averaging about 5%/year, which has led to a wave of money withdrawal from all markets around the world, from developed markets such as the European Union, Japan, China... to other emerging markets and frontier markets. In ASEAN, the stock markets of Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have all been "net withdrawn" by foreign investors, meaning they sell more than they buy. Although the amount of money withdrawn from the stock market in Vietnam is the lowest in the region, more than 94 trillion VND, equivalent to more than 3.7 billion USD, has been withdrawn.
Although the transaction value of foreign investors in Vietnam only accounts for 15%, because the transactions are mainly in the VN30 group, the group that accounts for 70% of the total market capitalization, when this group withdraws net, the VNINDEX cannot increase points, market liquidity drops by 30% compared to the previous year, which makes it difficult for investors to increase profits.
Without waves, sluggish liquidity, poor profitability, the stock market cannot retain investors, many people step into the gold market one step at a time.
Never before has the price of gold increased so rapidly, after one day the price of gold increased by several million VND per tael. Even in some auctions of SJC gold bars, the high prices are tens of millions higher than 9999 gold of the same quality.
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To stabilize the market, the State Bank had to sell gold through banks, and even sell gold online, and each person was only allowed to buy 1 tael of gold. However, the price of SJC gold fluctuated unreasonably, even with profiteering, the Ministry of Public Security said it had prosecuted 6 defendants for 2 crimes of "Embezzlement of property; Abuse of position and power while performing official duties" occurring at SJC Company and related units.
Up to now, the price of SJC gold has been almost parallel, at times even lower than the price of 9999 gold, but there are still unpredictable fluctuations because it depends entirely on the fluctuations of world gold prices with unpredictable factors from geopolitics.
Last year, the lending interest rate was low, creating more opportunities for people to buy houses and land. Apartment prices in big cities were pushed up, such as Hanoi, where some places increased by 25-30%. The reason given for the increase is the scarcity of supply. But that is what the sellers say, but in reality, the transactions in the largest centers of Hanoi are not mainly buying and selling.
If they can't eat it, they will destroy it, and speculators will turn to manipulating prices to sabotage auctions. Land plots adjacent to fields and houses are priced up to 30 billion VND/m2. This unimaginable number has successfully ruined the auction.
There have been consecutive sabotages in round 6, then in round 8 at different auctions, but the subjects still have the right to receive deposits, loopholes in the auction regulations have allowed many crooks to take advantage.
While those who really need a house to live in cannot afford to buy one, thousands of resettlement houses and abandoned urban areas across the country, thousands of projects are behind schedule, hundreds of thousands of hectares of land have been fenced off for decades, wasting land resources, wasting State resources.
Cultural products with national values as the fulcrum
If talking about the imprints in the cultural field, it is impossible not to mention that last year, many cultural products and art programs were resoundingly successful. Interestingly, what made the success were the elements that carried national identity, honored traditional values, and conveyed the message of national pride.
Music nights with 100% Vietnamese artists, with tens of thousands of audiences, quickly sold out - a phenomenon of the cultural industry in 2024.
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The second concert of the program Anh trai vuot ngan cong gai
2024, is also the story of tens of thousands of young people singing along to traditional songs, passionately performing traditional musical instruments, proud of Vietnamese values. From an entertainment phenomenon, it opens up a new perspective for cultural products that take national values as the fulcrum.
2024, culture becomes a successful fulcrum for many products: from music, movies, digital content creation, electronic games. That is, digital content creators make videos about historical stories, which can be accompanied by revenue from handicrafts; art projects combining traditional plays and electronic music can sell thousands of tickets at a price of millions of VND. 4 out of 10 Vietnamese films with the highest box office revenue of the year belong to films adapted from and exploiting folk materials. 2024 also witnessed the phenomenon of audiences lining up to watch a film with a revolutionary historical theme.
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Audiences line up to watch the movie "Dao, Pho and Piano"
Successes that can be measured by profits have made producers and entertainment companies invest more in products with national cultural elements.
Success with the national cultural fulcrum makes the ambition to export Vietnamese culture to the world no longer a fantasy, when Vietnamese people are confident and proud of their inner strength.
"Developing cultural industries and cultural services on the basis of identifying and promoting the soft power of Vietnamese culture" is the goal set from the 13th National Congress of the Party. The strategy for developing cultural industries also determines to promote the value and identity of national culture to the world. The successful lessons from countries in the region when developing cultural industries, to spread the soft power of the country are gradually becoming a reality in Vietnam.
In 2024, Vietnamese audiences will laugh and cry together with folk songs on stages with tens of thousands of people. In 2024, destinations that mark cultural and historical pride will become must-see destinations for young people.
National pride is like a red thread running through each person, and is resonated by methodical and professional cultural products, so that Vietnamese values spread strongly, like a solid spiritual support for each person.
Enhancing the country's position through culture also requires a long-term strategy, proper investment and coordination between the fields of culture, economy and diplomacy. Because culture is not only heritage but also "soft power", an important tool to shape the national position in the globalized world.
Unique cultural identity is also one of the factors contributing to the great, comprehensive and historically significant achievements of our country under the leadership of the Party over the past nearly 95 years. The beneficiaries of that achievement are every citizen, family, and business in every countryside and region of the country, whose work, business, and life have all been significantly improved.
After nearly 40 years of implementing the Doi Moi process, Vietnam has risen from a backward economy to become one of the top 40 economies, with a trade scale in the top 20 countries in the world. With an economic growth rate of 7%, this year our country's Gross Domestic Product reached 480 billion USD and next year there will be no more temporary or dilapidated houses nationwide.
The year 2025 is knocking on the door of every family, this is an important year, the year to celebrate the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Party, the 50th anniversary of the complete liberation of the South, the reunification of the country, and the 80th anniversary of National Day. This is also the year that the entire political system will drastically implement innovation and reorganize the political system to be "lean, compact, strong, effective, efficient, and effective". It is the final year to implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, the year of Party Congresses at all levels, leading up to the 14th National Party Congress, so that the country can enter a new era - the era of the Vietnamese people's rise, realizing the aspiration to become a powerful and prosperous nation.
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News Department
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