Trần Thanh Mẫn, President of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front, speaks to Thời báo Kinh tế Việt Nam (Việt Nam Economic Times) newspaper on the Front’s tasks of supervision and encouraging public debates.

In your opinion, how should Party organisations at all levels help the Việt Nam Fatherland Front perform its tasks of supervision and encouraging public debates?

To accomplish its assigned tasks, the Việt Nam Fatherland Front needs strong support from Party organisations and people’s administrations at all levels. Of course, people working in the Việt Nam Fatherland Front should have high political ethics and be knowledgeable. An important role of the Fatherland Front is to act as an advisory agency to local People’s Committees, the central Government and the Party Central Committee.

Another important mission of the Việt Nam Fatherland is to organise regular dialogues with local Party and administrative organisations to hear the people’s feedback on the Party and Government’s policies on the country, including on hot issues that have captured attention from the general public.

Furthermore, it is important to have strong co-ordination between the Việt Nam Fatherland Front and political and social organisations nationwide to provide public feedback to the Government, the Party Central Committee and concerned agencies.

In 2019, the Việt Nam Fatherland Front Chapters at the grassroots level will organise their congresses and elect new leaders. What are the criteria for selecting leaders for the new term?

In 2018, the Việt Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee developed a proposal on the holding of the chapters at a grassroots level and the 9th National Congress of the Fatherland Front for the tenure from 2019 to 2024. We have already started preparations for the two events, including selecting people to stand for elections. The most important criteria for candidates are that they possess good virtues, ethical standards and can serve as good role models for others.

What are some key personnel training tasks for the Việt Nam Fatherland Front?

At present, the Việt Nam Fatherland Front doesn’t have its own school to train future key personnel. However, in recent years, we have received active and strong support from all local Party Committees nationwide in training future trade union leaders. We hope in the near future the Fatherland Front will have its own training school. To my knowledge, we have been granted a piece of land in Hà Nội’s outlying district of Đan Phượng to build the school. — VNS