Lê Quốc Phong, First Secretary of the Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union, speaks to Vietnam News Agency about the tasks for Vietnamese youth over the next five years ahead of the National Congress of the union in Hà Nội from December 10-13.

What are the most notable achievements of the youth union in its last five-year term from 2012-2017?

There are  two most notable achievements over this term.

The first is the union’s educational activities. In the last five years, the Youth Union has done its best to renew and diversify educational activities among the union members. To make the activities more interesting and attractive, we have used the Internet to disseminate information on the activities of the Youth Union nation wide, as well as disseminate the Party and Government’s policies, particularly policies relating to the youth. For example, on the occasion of the 70^th anniversary of the Day of War Invalids and Martyrs, we launched a campaign to call on all Vietnamese youths to take specific actions to show their deep gratitude to people who have rendered services to the nation. At the same time, we also launched an education campaign to instill in them the love for the nation and national sovereignty. We also organised trips to offshore islands or border areas for many young people to further instill in them the love of the nation and to help them get to know the lives of the local people, particularly their peers.

The other achievement of the last five years is the two big campaigns launched by the Youth Union with the participation of more than 16 million union members.

In the five years from 2012-2017, for the first time each volunteer campaign launched by the Youth Union had its own name. For example, we held the green summer for students; the flamboyant summer for school pupils; the green march and others. Through those campaigns, we have successfully enhanced the young people’s energetic spirit and love for the nation through specific activities, including helping people to recover their losses after natural disasters and through environmental protection activities and others.

The Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union has carried out many specific activities to support the start-up movement. For example we launched the Vietnamese Youth Start-up Programme; or the establishment of the Support Centre for Start-ups and others. At the same time, we have invested a lot of time and effort to organise spaces and environments for the young people to learn new life and working skills to enable them to enter their adult life with more experiences.

Will you please talk a bit further about the Youth Union’s future plan to help its members in their start-ups?

In the next five years, the start-up movement will receive special attention from Vietnamese young people and the Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee considers it as one of its important missions to accompany them in the movement. This is already included in the draft political report to be presented at the upcoming 11^th National Congress of the union. In the document we’ll come up with measures to foster and promote the start-up spirit in the next five years so that it will become a driving force in the national economic development.

As Việt Nam becomes a start-up nation, each Vietnamese youth should clarify their thinking about their future. And the Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union will always be by their side wherever they are. We hope our young people will always be a vanguard in economic activities. This is the best way for them to contribute to the course of national development.

In your opinion, what should Vietnamese young people do to contribute their part in solving regional and global issues?

Việt Nam is in the stage of speeding up its process of industrialisation and modernisation while deeply integrating internationally. As a result, our young people will have many opportunities to approach and exchange experiences with their foreign peers, particularly in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. This is one of the important tasks of the Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee: to prepare necessary skills for our young people to integrate internationally, including their foreign language skills.

We’re confident that in the course of deep international integration, our Vietnamese young people will join hands with their foreign peers to come up with programmes and solutions together.

What will be the focus of the Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee’s activities in the future?

We will focus our activities in three areas: education, movement and the bolstering of the Youth Union. Of course, for each mission, we’ll come up with specific activities which are closely linked to the major programmes launched by the Youth Union Central Committee. We have also defined the action slogans for our activities in the coming future: “Pioneer, firm character, unity, innovation and development”. We hope that the 6.4 million members of the union, plus the 24 million Vietnamese youths living inside and outside the country, will join hands to make Việt Nam a prosperous and happy nation. — VNS