Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng delivers closing remarks at the fourth plenum of the 13th Party Central Committee. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The fourth plenum of the 13th Party Central Committee concluded on Thursday, completing all its working programme after four days.

On the final day of the plenum, Prime Minister and Politburo member Phạm Minh Chính, presented the Poliburo's report in response to the Party Central Committee's feedback on a number of issues, including the implementation of the socio-economic development plan in 2021; the planned socio-economic development programme in 2022; implementation of the State budget in 2021 and estimate of the State budget in 2022; plan on delaying the implementation of wage policy reform under Resolution No 27-NQ/TW of the 7th Plenum of the 12th Central Committee; report on the results of COVID-19 prevention and control.

Võ Văn Thưởng, Politburo member, permanent member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat, delivered a report on the five-year implementation of Resolution No 04-NQ/TW, dated October 30, 2016, of the 12th Central Committee on strengthening Party building and rectification; preventing and driving back degradation in political thought, morality and lifestyle, manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” among members, as well as regulations on Party members issued on October 30, 2016. 

In his closing remarks, Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng said the committee acknowledged the serious impact of the fourth wave of COVID-19. The national economy shrank by 6.17 per cent in the third quarter of this year, pushing the nine-month growth down to 1.42 per cent, the lowest for the period since 2000.

The growth for this year is therefore estimated at only 3 per cent, a far cry from the target of 6 per cent set by the National Assembly. It is forecast that many main targets of this year would not be met.

Given the unpredictable developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Party leader emphasised the need to change the mindset and strengthen awareness of pandemic prevention and control in connection with recovering and boosting business and production activities. He said appropriate plans and scenarios should be built and integrated into socio-economic development, finance-budget and public investment plans for 2022.

He ordered strengthening the leadership, management and instruction in the implementation of socio-economic solutions, with a focus on supplementing and completing institutions, and removing obstacles to investment, production and business.

Along with restructuring a number of major sectors and enterprises in trade, services, aviation and tourism that have been affected by COVID-19, there should be solutions to protect businesses in key industries and prevent the bankruptcy of big groups, thus helping the national economy keep pace with the global economy’s recovery trend, as well as the restructuring of the global production and supply chain, Trọng said.

The Party Central Committee basically approved the overall targets along with major tasks and solutions for 2022 as proposed by the Government’s Party delegation, including moving back the time to implement salary reforms under the resolution adopted at the seventh plenum of the 12th Party Central Committee.

The committee requested further reviewing and adjusting targets, tasks and solutions to submit them to the National Assembly for consideration, so as to ensure socio-economic development in 2022 and the years to come.

Regarding Party building and rectification work, the Party chief noted a new point of this working session, which is to extend the scale of the work to the entire political system, with an emphasis on proactive prevention and strict handling of the degradation in political thought, morality, lifestyle as well as other negative phenomena.

The plenum reached a consensus on issuing new regulations on things that Party members are not allowed to do, which will serve as an important basis to handle violations by officials and Party members.

The Party leader said Party Central Committee lauded the tremendous efforts and contributions as well as good deeds of people, soldiers and businesses in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and thanked overseas Vietnamese and international friends for their support. — VNS