General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam, Nguyễn Phú Trọng addresses a meeting of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption’s Standing Board on Saturday in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo Trí Dũng.

HÀ NỘI – Members of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption’s Standing Board have agreed on plans to finalise the investigation, prosecution and judgment of 23 corruption and economic cases in 2017 and the first quarter of 2018. 
The plans were developed during the board’s meeting in Hà Nội on Saturday under the chair of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam, Nguyễn Phú Trọng. 
At the meeting, attendees focused on reviewing corruption prevention and control activities so far while pointing out difficulties facing some major cases recently. 
Addressing the event, the Party leader, who is also head of the committee, noted that after the meeting of the committee’s standing board in April this year, the settlement of some specific corruption cases had seen significant progress, which was lauded by the community. 
However, he said that the handling of some case had been overdue due to difficulties in many stages including investigation, verification and asset reclamation. 
He lauded the committee’s building of a list of urgent cases requiring drastic settlement. He asked the committee to concentrate on dealing with the case of Trịnh Xuân Thanh at the PetroVietnam Construction Corporation (PVC) and the PCV’s investment of VNĐ800 billion (US$35.19 million) in OceanBank. The cases must be brought to the court during the rest of the year and February 2018 at the latest, he requested. 
He also urged authorised agencies to coordinate smoothly to speed up the investigation, prosecution and judgment of urgent corruption cases drawing public concern.

Earlier this month while working with authorities in northern Hải Phòng City, the Party leader emphasised that building and reorganising the Party is a key task as the work will affect not only millions of Party members but also the whole political system, State apparatus, personnel work, and working lifestyle. 
The prevention of corruption must be complete, drastic and persistent in order to create effective change, he stressed.

Meanwhile, international integration, industrialisation and urbanisation must be accompanied by cultural preservation and the promotion of great national unity, resilience and creativity, he said. — VNS