Too much power is still concentrated at the central and ministerial levels.

Speaking at the conference to review the work of 2024 and deploy tasks for 2025 of the Government and local authorities on the morning of January 8, General Secretary To Lam shared that he was very impressed and moved by the convincing results achieved in 2024.

“We have successfully and comprehensively achieved the socio -economic development goals for 2024 in a context of strong winds and waves, even at times “storms” at the national, regional and international levels,” according to the General Secretary.

"Strict handling of violations has re-established discipline and law"

General Secretary To Lam also summarized many outstanding results in all fields, including stable macro-economy, economic growth reaching over 7%, the highest in the region and the world in the context of global difficulties.

In particular, according to the General Secretary, over the past year, the organizational apparatus has been streamlined towards effectiveness and efficiency, reducing overlap and improving management capacity. This is the basis for improving labor productivity, optimizing resources, and better meeting the requirements of socio-economic development.

The General Secretary assessed the work of preventing corruption, waste and negativity as a bright spot when a series of major corruption and economic cases were discovered and strictly handled, clearly affirming the spirit of "no forbidden zones, no exceptions".

“Strict handling of violations has re-established discipline and law, ensured the strictness of the law, contributed to cleaning up the apparatus in the political system, cadres and party members at all levels, created a deterrent effect, educated widely, and promoted a sense of responsibility and integrity throughout the system,” General Secretary To Lam emphasized.

General Secretary To Lam acknowledged many convincing socio-economic results in 2024 (Photo: Doan Bac).

The General Secretary said that the Government has submitted a Project to reorganize and streamline the Government apparatus in accordance with the Central Government's direction and the spirit of Resolution No. 18, in the direction of promoting decentralization and delegation of power, creating favorable conditions for local authorities at all levels to be more proactive in handling work, while enhancing the responsibility and authority of administrative agencies.

In addition, the arrangement aims to reduce administrative procedures, shorten work processing time, and improve the State's service to the people.

Despite many achievements, according to the General Secretary, there are still some serious limitations and shortcomings along with major challenges.

The macro economy shows signs of stability but still has potential risks. The institutional and legal systems still have many shortcomings, especially in regulations on land, environment and administrative procedures, hindering business development and people's lives.

According to the General Secretary, decentralization and delegation of power still have too much power concentrated at the central and ministerial levels. Many administrative agencies have not properly fulfilled their responsibilities, slowing down the progress of important projects. Freedom of business and property rights are sometimes violated due to weakness or abuse of power in the performance of public duties.

“We need to look straight at the truth, analyze the situation and causes thoroughly, objectively and comprehensively, draw valuable lessons from practice to come up with creative, effective and timely solutions,” the General Secretary emphasized.

Noting a number of key tasks in 2025, the General Secretary emphasized the need to unify awareness and action on the urgency of continuing to carry out economic innovation.

“We must strongly, decisively and drastically innovate in economic management so that we can firmly enter an era of prosperity, wealth and development. The top priority is to streamline the political system’s apparatus towards being streamlined – compact – strong – efficient – ​​effective – efficient”, said the General Secretary.

According to him, this is not just about cutting but also requires extensive reform of state governance, transparency, and promoting decentralization and delegation of power in administration, economy, finance - budget, and resource management.

Local leaders attending the Conference (Photo: Doan Bac).

At the same time, the General Secretary reminded that it is necessary to increase the proactiveness, creativity, self-reliance and accountability of authorities at all levels, especially leaders, with the requirement to abandon the mindset of "if you can't manage, then ban", promote the method of "management by results", innovate budget allocation according to output results, and shift from "pre-control" to "post-control", creating new space and development momentum.

Regarding the requirement to amend laws and management mechanisms to give more autonomy and initiative to all levels of government, the General Secretary noted that this needs to go hand in hand with a mechanism to closely monitor and control power, ensuring that there is no abuse of power for personal gain.

The ability to achieve double-digit growth in the future depends largely on our economic development reform process, according to the General Secretary.

Prioritizing economic growth, maintaining macroeconomic stability and controlling inflation, according to the General Secretary, is the key goal to build a strong and stable economy with the motto "development for stability - stability for development".

Hundreds of thousands of workers will leave the state sector after streamlining

To achieve an economic growth rate of 8% in 2025, the General Secretary said it is necessary to promote institutional breakthroughs, promote market principles in resource mobilization and allocation, and eliminate the "ask-give" mechanism and subsidy mindset.

In particular, the General Secretary emphasized prioritizing the resolution of wasted resources, such as suspended planning, projects stuck in procedures, unused public land, disputed assets, and protracted cases.

General Secretary To Lam, President Luong Cuong, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man and Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh attended the Government's online conference with localities (Photo: Doan Bac).

In addition, the General Secretary directed the implementation of the policy of "contracting growth" in both quantity and quality to localities, along with promoting decentralization and delegation of power to create dynamism and creativity for localities to find their own mechanisms, policies and solutions to achieve double-digit growth, contributing to the economic growth of the whole country.

Another orientation mentioned by the General Secretary is to focus on investing in completing the system of strategic, key and important national infrastructure, especially projects on road and high-speed railway infrastructure, seaports, airports, energy and climate change adaptation.

Strive to complete 3,000km of expressway, over 1,000km of coastal road and start construction of Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway, the General Secretary requested.

Regarding social issues, the General Secretary noted the need to issue and implement a roadmap for solutions to reduce air pollution in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, bringing the air quality index to a level that is not harmful to health.

In Party building and rectification, the General Secretary emphasized the need to strongly fight against corruption and waste; conduct investigations, prosecutions, and strict trials of corruption and negative cases, while strengthening the recovery of lost assets, making public service activities transparent, and controlling the assets of officials and Party members.

Leaders of ministries and branches attended the Conference (Photo: Doan Bac).

General Secretary To Lam also raised an open question about preparing “nests” for the “eagles”. “This is very correct and should be done, but why do we rarely mention plans to prepare forests and fields for bee colonies to collect flowers for honey? Why have we not set targets for creating new jobs for each stage and each field?”, the General Secretary suggested and predicted that in the coming period, hundreds of thousands of workers will leave the State sector due to the impact of streamlining the apparatus in the political system.

"So what policies does the Government have so that the non-state sector can receive a portion of that?", the General Secretary asked.

Emphasizing the fact that the more difficult the situation, the more we demonstrate solidarity, determination, unanimity and rise up strongly, the General Secretary affirmed that up to now, we have had enough power and strength, enough will and determination to enter a new era - an era of striving to develop richly, strongly and prosperously for the nation.

Source: https://moha.gov.vn/tintuc/Pages/danh-sach-tin-noi-bat.aspx?ItemID=56769