VNA: The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (the 9th tenure) made an announcement at the end of its 11^th session, which took place in Hanoi from January 17-25.

The announcement stressed the importance of the session, as it was held to prepare documents for the tenth National Party Congress. The Committee heard and discussed a report summing up theoretical and practical issues over the past 20 years of renovation (doi moi), detailed drafts of a political report, a supplementary report for the Party's 1991 Political Platform, a report on the orientation and tasks for socio-economic development in the 2006-2010 period, a report on Party building work, a report on proposed amendments of Party regulations, and other important issues. General Secretary Nong Duc Manh delivered important opening and closing speeches at  the meeting.

After hearing the reports presented by the Politburo, members of the Party Central Committee and other participants discussed and debated the issues in groups and at plenary sessions, in a democratic, spirited and frank manner. They contributed 261 opinions which focused on major issues. The discussion, in the spirit of earnest criticism and self-criticism, resulted in objective and truthful assessments of both the strong and weak points of the Party during the 20 years carrying out the "doi moi" cause and nearly four years implementing the ninth National Party Congress's resolutions. All opinions, while basically agreeing with issues mentioned in the draft reports and put forward by the Politburo, further supplemented, analysed and clarified many important issues. Many participants praised the quality of the draft reports, saying that they had been prepared carefully with clear content and logical outlines, and brought up many new points in terms of both theory and practicality. The Central Committee agreed that these new points, when supplemented in content and presented in more accurate wording, and if they are approved by the Central Committee and the 10^th National Party Congress, will pave the way for new breakthroughs in national development.

In the report that reviews some theoretical and practical issues over 20 years of "doi moi" and the detailed drafts of reports to be submitted to the 10th Congress, the session strongly agreed with the statement made about achievements and shortcomings across the main spheres, and  lessons drawn from 20 years of "doi moi" as well as those of four years of implementing the Resolution issued by the 9th Party Congress.

This is considered the basis for the edition of draft documents which will be submitted at the upcoming 12th session for consideration and approval.

Taking stock of 20 years of carrying out the "doi moi" policy, the Committee described the achievements gained over the past 20 years as great, comprehensive and of historic significance.

To date, the Party has been able to establish the outlines of a theoretical system for the "doi moi" process and the path to socialism in Vietnam, considering them as scientific foundations for the Party's future policy and for the supplementation and development of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on socialism.

The session was of the view that although the ninth Party Congress's Resolution has been implemented for just four years, what has been achieved, especially in 2004, reflects great efforts made by our people of all strata and their determination to press ahead with the "doi moi" process under the Party's leadership. Despite complicated developments in the world and at home, the Party and people have managed to grasp opportunities and advantages to surmount many difficulties and challenges, thus resulting in many important achievements in socio-economic development and other areas. However, generally speaking, the past four years' socio-economic development has been slow and uneven while the economy's efficiency, quality and competitiveness remain low. Economic restructuring has failed to catch up with new requirements; socio-cultural development is not on par with economic growth; and many urgent problems still exist.

Participants spent much time discussing and commenting on Party-related issues and Party building work, focusing on ideological, political and moral sense, and the lifestyle of cadres and Party members. They examined the Party's organisational and personnel work, focusing on the grassroots level, deliberated about the renovation of the Party's leadership method, and reviewed Party inspectional and disciplinary issues. They analysed the causes of the situations and drew lessons for Party building therefrom. Based on these causes and lessons, they defined the orientations, goals and tasks of Party building work in the coming years with the aim of making the Party pure and strong, and able to meet the requirements of a new revolutionary period.

The Party Central Committee reiterated the Party, the State and the people's resolve in the next five years as follows: to work hard to increase the Party's leading role and combat strength, to promote the entire people's strength, to speed up the "doi moi" process comprehensively and simultaneously, and to lift the country out of the state of under development by 2010, enriching the people's material and spiritual lives, thus laying a foundation for the country to basically become an industrialised country along a socialist orientation by 2020.

In such a spirit, the 11^th session of the Party Central Committee has assigned the Politburo to be responsible for collecting the Central Committee's opinions for the editing of the draft documents of the 10^th National Party Congress and submitting them to the upcoming 12^th session.

The session also discussed and adopted a number of important issues.

It stressed that there is more than a year until the 10^th National Party Congress. This is the final year of implementing the 9^th National Party Congress's resolutions and also the five-year plan for socio-economic development (2001-2005). It is also the year for organising party congresses at various levels towards the 10^th National Party Congress and other important events.

The session called on the entire Party, people and army to look forward to the 75^th founding anniversary of the glorious Communist Party of Vietnam (February 3) and bring into full play the tradition of heroism, staunchness, and glory of the nation and the Party in order to turn Vietnam's patriotism and heroic revolutionism into great spiritual and material strength, thus promoting role-model movements and overfulfilling socio-economic targets set for 2005, successfully building and protecting the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, preparing in advance for follow-up steps of development and actively contributing to the success of the 10^th National Party Congress.