Politburo member and Minister of Public Security General Lương Tam Quang speaks at a national conference held on Wednesday to disseminate and implement the resolutions adopted at the third plenum of the 14th Party Central Committee. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The Party Central Committee has introduced a new strategy for national security and social development in the new era, aiming to ensure peace, stability and high-quality sustainable development while improving people's well-being and achieving Việt Nam's two centenary goals, Politburo member and Minister of Public Security General Lương Tam Quang said at a national conference on Wednesday to disseminate and implement resolutions adopted at the third plenum of the 14th Party Central Committee.

He noted that, for the first time, the 14th National Party Congress placed maintaining a peaceful and stable environment at the forefront of the country's development objectives. It also set the goal of building a society that is orderly, civilised, secure, safe, socially protected and development-oriented, with the long-term ambition of significantly reducing crime and ultimately creating a society free of crime, accidents, social evils and corruption.

Despite major breakthroughs that have made Việt Nam one of the world's leading countries in terms of peace, stability and security, Quang acknowledged that challenges remain. The four major risks identified by the Party have yet to be fully addressed, while an increasingly volatile global environment and emerging non-traditional security threats pose unprecedented challenges.

Against this backdrop, he said, Việt Nam requires new mindset, new approaches and higher standards in safeguarding national security. National security must become an enabler of development, providing the foundation for rapid, sustainable growth and higher living standards. The new national security strategy aims to ensure that operations of the administrations at all levels remain uninterrupted, critical infrastructure continues functioning, the economy avoids severe disruption and society remains stable under all circumstances.

The strategy sets out six guiding principles, reflecting the Party's updated mindset on national security, and introduces seven specific objectives, expanding on previous national security strategies to address new challenges.

Key priorities include safeguarding the Party's ideological foundation, leadership role, combat capacity and the strength of the socialist system. It also calls for stronger protection of the legitimate interests of Vietnamese organisations and citizens abroad and deeper international cooperation on security.

To achieve these goals, the resolution outlines nine major groups of tasks and measures, including some introduced for the first time, such as protecting the political system and institutions against all contingencies, safeguarding emerging domains and technologies, responding proactively to new forms of security threats and crises, enhancing human security and making public trust a core pillar of the national security strategy.

The minister stressed that national security in the new era extends beyond protecting the Party, the State, the people, the political system and national sovereignty. It now encompasses safeguarding the foundations of national development and ensuring the stable operation of the economy, society and technology. He underscored that all development strategies must strengthen national resilience and that security must never be sacrificed for economic growth.

He also highlighted another resolution on building an orderly, safe, healthy, civilised, harmonious and development-oriented society, describing it as the first strategic Party document dedicated to this objective.

The resolution targets the establishment of the foundations for such a society by 2030, with longer-term goals extending to 2045. Among its key targets are reducing social order crimes by 10 per cent annually, ensuring that by 2030 at least 50 per cent of commune-level localities and 20 per cent of provincial-level localities are drug-free, completing the development of a digital government, placing Việt Nam among ASEAN's top three and the world's top 50 in digital government, and among the world's top 15 in the Global Cybersecurity Index.

Other targets include raising the national public administration satisfaction index (SIPAS) above 88 per cent, ensuring universal access to schools, teachers and learning materials, achieving an upper secondary education completion rate of at least 85 per cent, providing annual health check-ups for all citizens while moving towards universal free hospital care, maintaining unemployment below 3 per cent, and improving access to cultural services nationwide.

The resolution also aims to raise Việt Nam's Human Development Index (HDI) to around 0.8, increase life expectancy to about 75.5 years, and place the country among the world's 40 happiest nations, while addressing urban disorder, pollution, traffic congestion and flooding.

To support implementation, it identifies eight groups of tasks and measures, including three breakthrough priorities: promoting a culture of respect for the rule of law and public service ethics, developing the Vietnamese people for a new era, and building a modern system of social governance that supports development from the grassroots level.

Quang said the Politburo has also adopted two action programmes containing 79 and 59 specific tasks, respectively, following the principle of "six clarities" – clearly defining responsibilities, tasks, timelines, authority and expected outcomes.

He concluded that the two resolutions establish a new strategic vision for protecting national security across all domains while building a people-centred society that improves both material and spiritual well-being, providing a new foundation and driving force for implementing the resolutions of the 14th National Party Congress. — VNA/VNS