Building and perfecting cultural institutions

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue works with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

General review, determination to build and perfect cultural institutions

Over thousands of years of history, we have built a unique, distinctive, diverse and rich Vietnamese culture with national character and soul, which is the "passport" and "identity card" for Vietnam to confidently integrate with the world. In the new period, the period of comprehensive integration and development, to realize the policies and guidelines on cultural development in the spirit of the Resolution of the 13th National Congress as well as the direction of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the National Cultural Conference in 2021, in the past half term, the entire Culture, Sports and Tourism sector has made efforts to focus on implementing the construction and completion of policy institutions, creating a relatively complete legal corridor, contributing to removing bottlenecks and unblocking resources, creating a breakthrough turning point for culture to truly become one of the pillars, "an endogenous strength, a driving force for national development and national defense".

Assessing the current status of institutional, policy and resource building for cultural development in the years before the 13th Congress, many experts affirmed: Institutional building, policy issuance and resource assurance for cultural development still have many shortcomings, difficulties and obstacles. Institutions, policies and laws on culture are still slow to innovate, not keeping up with development requirements, some regulations are still inadequate, overlapping, lacking in synchronization and low efficiency. Some fields still lack regulatory legal documents. The organization of law enforcement is still weak and not strong. Institutions on autonomy for public service units in the cultural field are slow to be completed. The arrangement and innovation of public service units in the cultural field are still mechanical and inappropriate. Policies for preserving and promoting traditional cultural values have not covered all national cultural heritages and values. Policies for cultural industries are slow to be issued, the market, cultural products and services are still fragmented. The policy mechanism for building culture in the economy , economy in culture; mobilizing and managing resources for culture is not specific, not really creating many effective incentives to mobilize social resources for cultural development; not yet overcoming the mentality of waiting and relying on the state budget...

At the 2021 National Cultural Conference, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong pointed out that one of the main causes of the limitations, shortcomings, inadequacies, and weaknesses in the cultural field is that "the institutionalization and organization of the implementation of the Party's cultural guidelines are still lacking in synchronization, determination, and effectiveness". The General Secretary requested "early overcoming the slow institutionalization of the Party's guidelines, viewpoints, and policies into laws and specific, feasible policies on cultural development and human development", "maximizing resources from the State and society, from within the country and abroad to develop culture".

Based on practical requirements, it has been shown that the construction and improvement of institutions and policies to remove "bottlenecks" and unblock resources for cultural development is an important and urgent task, not only to affirm the position and reposition the role and function of the culture, sports and tourism sector, but also to create new vitality and new momentum for the cause of building and reviving culture in particular and developing the country in general.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung reported on the results achieved after half of the 13th Congress term.

The Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress has determined: Comprehensive human development; building an advanced culture imbued with national identity; developing culture to truly become an endogenous strength and driving force for national development and national defense. One of the strategic breakthroughs in the coming period is to perfect institutions and policies, arouse the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country and promote cultural values, the strength of the Vietnamese people, the spirit of solidarity and national pride in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland.

Recognizing the importance and urgency of building and perfecting institutions and policies in the cultural field, right from the beginning of his term, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung and the entire sector promptly redefined the functions and tasks, promptly innovated the thinking and approach "from doing culture to state management of culture". The entire sector also identified the working theme for 2021 - the first year of implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Congress as "The year of building institutions and policies". In order to create a new momentum, a high political determination for the entire sector to organize and achieve remarkable results in this field, a general review in the fields and units under the Ministry was launched and implemented. All the shortcomings in each field and unit that have lasted for many years have been brought up in conferences and working sessions chaired by the Ministry's leaders. The inherent bottlenecks that hinder the development of culture have been "dissected" and put on the "scale" to analyze and find solutions... And, one of the key solutions to remove bottlenecks and open up resources for cultural development has been affirmed by Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung, which lies in the issue of institutions and policies. Therefore, concretizing the Party's guidelines, policies and strategies; focusing on building and perfecting institutions, thereby proactively reviewing and proposing advice to the Party, State, National Assembly and Government to promulgate policies and legal documents to better perform the task of state management is the top priority task of the entire cultural sector in the first year of implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress.

It can be said that this is the strategic acumen of the head of the Culture, Sports and Tourism sector. The change in thinking from doing culture to state management of culture using legal tools has created breakthroughs, strong "pushes" for cultural development. Although still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, all three areas of the Ministry have left their marks, events, and telling figures showing positive changes compared to 2020.

Sharing about this issue, Party Central Committee member, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung said: Perfecting institutions and policies, and unlocking resources for cultural development is one of the important solutions, contributing to the revival and development of culture. Thereby, concretizing and realizing the goal of cultural revival and development according to the Party's guidelines and policies, which General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized at the 2021 National Conference on Culture. In 2021, the Ministry coordinated with relevant departments and branches to advise the Politburo and the Secretariat to successfully organize the National Cultural Conference to implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress; reporting to the Government to submit to the National Assembly the draft Law on Cinema (amended), the Law on Intellectual Property (copyright and related rights); completing the dossier to propose the development of the Law on Prevention and Control of Domestic Violence (amended)... In addition, the Ministry has also proactively coordinated with a number of central ministries and branches to sign programs in the next 5 years, including programs with imprints such as: Program of joint action with the Central Propaganda Department, with the Ethnic Committee, with the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor...

Also in 2021, the whole industry has made efforts to overcome difficulties, transform activities according to the policy of safe adaptation, effective epidemic prevention and control, and socio-economic recovery and development. Specifically, the Ministry has focused on directing art units to effectively implement new and unprecedented ways of doing things such as online theater, television theater, live streaming programs of artists going to the epidemic center, bringing songs and voices to serve compatriots, comrades, and forces on the front line. This activity creates a "spiritual vaccine" effect to encourage and motivate people to overcome difficulties. Thereby, the good traditional cultural values of the whole nation continue to be strongly promoted, solidarity, attachment, love, and sharing are multiplied, creating the soft power of culture.

Culture can only be effective when investment in culture is truly focused on through appropriate strategies, programs and roadmaps. This is the driving force and basis for the entire industry to focus on implementing, building and perfecting the cultural policy framework to create the best operating environment for culture. From here, the "door" of institutions and policies to create breakthroughs for cultural development has opened wide; promoting interest and worthy investment in culture.

The promotion of building and perfecting institutions, policies and fields of culture, sports and tourism have all seen improvements.

Efforts to innovate, create a "push" for cultural development

Immediately after identifying the key tasks, the entire culture, sports and tourism sector immediately took action with high determination. In addition to reviewing the "bottlenecks" to perfect the institutions, the Ministry has consulted and coordinated the organization of major cultural events to propose solutions to remove difficulties and create conditions for cultural development such as: National Cultural Conference 2021, Series of events to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of the Outline on Vietnamese culture, Workshop on National Value System, Cultural Value System, Family Value System and Standards of Vietnamese People in the New Era...

In particular, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has submitted to the Government for approval the Cultural Strategy to 2030 with specific goals, targets and 11 groups of tasks and implementation solutions. The Ministry has also issued the Action Program for Tourism Development for the period 2021-2025, advising on the promulgation of the Sports Development Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2050.... Since the beginning of the 2021-2025 term, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has developed, submitted to competent authorities for promulgation and approval: 02 draft Laws, coordinated the submission of 01 draft Law; 09 Decrees of the Government; 10 Decisions, 02 Directives of the Prime Minister; issued under its authority 40 Circulars.

Notably, in 2021, for the first time, the Cinema Law (amended) was submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and comments. This is an important Law project to help develop the country's cultural industry in the coming period with a new perspective on both artistic and economic aspects.

With the motto of "not beautifying" but also "not blackening" the current situation and the spirit of "looking back to move further", in 2021, Minister Nguyen Van Hung and leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism have chaired many conferences, seminars and meetings to consult experts in the field of tourism to have a correct and comprehensive perspective to advise the Government to issue support mechanisms and policies to help the tourism industry recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to that, right after the Government issued Resolution 128 on safe, flexible adaptation and effective control of the COVID-19 epidemic, with the Government's permission, in November 2021, the tourism industry boldly piloted welcoming international visitors with "vaccine passports", creating conditions for tourism to recover strongly after the pandemic.

In particular, with the active advice of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in December 2022, the Government issued a Resolution agreeing on the necessity and purpose of developing the Proposal to develop the Law on Cultural Heritage (amended) to fully institutionalize the Party's guidelines and policies on protecting and promoting the value of cultural heritage; create a complete legal basis, a synchronous and unified legal system; promote the assignment, decentralization and socialization of the work of protecting and promoting the value of cultural heritage; harmoniously resolve the relationship between cultural heritage conservation and development, between issues related to cultural rights, human rights for the goal of sustainable development...

Build and perfect institutions to create conditions for cultural development.

At the working session with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in March 2023, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue acknowledged and highly appreciated the work of institution building. The National Assembly Chairman affirmed: "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has made many efforts to innovate its approach and management thinking, implementing its tasks with a proactive, serious, resolute and flexible spirit, especially shifting its thinking from doing culture to state management of culture, focusing on law-making work".

Looking back over the past half term, thanks to the determination and continuous efforts in perfecting institutions and policies, culture has been opened up. Despite being heavily affected by COVID-19, the cultural picture has never been as colorful, profound and rich as in recent years. The legal framework for cultural, sports and tourism activities has been comprehensively reviewed and gradually improved. Investment resources for culture have been gradually focused on, in the direction of caring for culture. Cultural and artistic works and programs serving political tasks and people's needs have been organized and implemented methodically, with focus and key points, in many diverse forms. Attention has been paid to the work of preserving, embellishing and promoting the value of cultural heritage. External information and cultural diplomacy have been effectively enhanced, contributing significantly to promoting the image of the country and people of Vietnam to international friends....

In order for culture to truly be the spiritual foundation of society, the goal and driving force for sustainable development and firmly protecting the Fatherland as set out in the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, the building and perfecting of cultural institutions and policies must be given top priority. However, in order for cultural institutions to be implemented synchronously and promptly, meeting the requirements of cultural development in the current period, there is certainly much work to be done ahead. Perhaps the most important thing is to promote the spirit of solidarity and creativity of the "Decisive action - Aspiration to contribute" of the collective leadership of the entire culture, sports and tourism sector. Only then will we have the basis to believe and expect the prosperity as well as breakthrough results from the cultural revival, building "soft power" and endogenous power to develop a prosperous and happy country.

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