Dr. Ruvislei González Sáez.  VNA/VNS Photo

HAVANA — The prestige and strength of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) are reflected in the revolutionary spirit as well as the spirit of criticism and self-criticism of each party member, according to Dr. Ruvislei González Sáez, one of the leading research experts on Vietnam in Latin America.

Talking to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)'s correspondent in Havana, Dr. González Sáez, a senior researcher at the Cuban Centre for International Policy Research (CIPI), said 94 years after its establishment, the CPV today has become the second largest Marxism-Leninism-oriented political organisation in the world, with a large number of members, just after the Communist Party of China.

Thanks to reforms within the Party consistent with historical circumstances and specific objective conditions, combined with theoretical and practical factors, the CPV has played a great leading role in improving socio-economic conditions and enhancing the country's position in the international arena.

Stressing victories gained by Vietnamese people under the leadership of the CPV, the Cuban expert affirmed that in 1986, it was the CPV that promoted the changes to take Vietnam from one of the 15 poorest countries in the world to one of the 15 most economically dynamic countries on the planet in 2023.

With the CPV's firm determination and sound direction, Vietnam stood firm and continued on the socialist path in the 1990s when the Soviet Union and socialism in Eastern Europe collapsed. The CPV has cleverly solved differences with former enemies and through its bamboo diplomacy, the country has maintained its relations with world powers, he said.

According to the scholar, like any political organisation in the world, the CPV has also faced countless challenges, but the most important thing is that the Party has known how to identify the problems and fiercely solve them.

Under the leadership of Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng, the prestige of the CPV has increased. For more than 20 years, Vietnam's economic growth has surpassed 5 per cent, except for the worst time in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic when Việt Nam was still one of the five strongest growing countries in the world with a growth rate of 2.9 per cent, he added. — VNS