Human Beings – One Central Element Deciding The Stable And Sustainable National Development

Human beings hold the central role in the developing strategy and cultural orientation, to construct human beings is the goal and motivation in the innovative timeline. Recognizing the cruciality of human resource element towards the nation, the authors from University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) analyzes in accordance with the viewpoint of the Vietnamese Communist Party as well as proposes some recommendations in education, nurturing and enhancing human beings that can be guaranteed for the stable and sustainable development of the nation in the current time.

Human beings playing an important role in the revolutionary struggle for national liberation, building and protecting the current Socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.

The classicists of Marxism-Leninism have researched and approached humans from the perspective of dialectical materialism and historical materialism, affirming that humans are a natural entity with a social nature as well as human existence and development are closely linked to the existence and the development of one society. They emphasized: “Human nature is not something abstract, inherent to a separate individual. In their realism, human nature is the synthesis of social relationships”.

The viewpoint of the Marxist-Leninist classics exudes the following content: Firstly, humans are a unity of biological and social factors; nevertheless, the social factors are the true nature of humans. Secondly, humans are always impacted and influenced by social relationships through their rich and diverse practical activities. Thirdly, humans are always active and creative in renewing themselves, improving the nature and their social relationships. This has affirmed that humans are always at the center of all times, creating their own history. The fact that the cause of human liberation is carried out by human beings themselves is one key and fundamental issue to distinguish the human beings of this era from those of other times; in other words, Marxism-Leninism recognizes and evaluates human beings as their genuine revolutionary and humanistic nature and science.

President Ho Chi Minh – one hero of national liberation, one world cultural celebrity – steered the ship of the Vietnamese revolution and affirmed that people are the great driving force that determines all victories of the Vietnamese revolution. Ho Chi Minh’s views and thoughts on people are expressed through different terms as follows: people, farmers, workers, intellectuals, soldiers and so on besides the phrases like ‘people’ strength’, “human strength’, “Nothing in the sky is more precious than the people”, “All power resides in the people” and so on. Therefore, throughout the development process of the Vietnamese revolution, he, along with the Government, did pay attention to taking care of and fostering ‘people’ strength’, creating favorable conditions for people to express and promote their talents and abilities towards the cause of resistance and national construction of the nation. He asserted that: “If a country is independent, in contrast, its people do not enjoy happiness and freedom, independence has no meaning”. He also emphasized that: “We have fought for freedom and independence; on the other hand, people continue to die of hunger and cold, freedom and independence are of no use. Only do people know the value of freedom and independence when they are well fed and clothed”. Therefore, in the revolutionary struggle for national liberation, people have highly promoted the nation’s patriotic traditions and fine cultural values, winning the war of invasion by the French Colonialists and the American Imperialist invaders, completely liberating the South, unifying the Fatherland and the whole country moved towards socialism.

Regarding our Communist Party, right after its birth, the flag of national independence and socialism was raised high with determined revolutionary goals and tasks, setting the goal of liberating people from oppression, exploitation and unjust. To carry out the identified requirements and tasks, the Party has gathered and united a large number of classes and classes in a unified national front under the Party’s leadership. The tradition of patriotism and deep hatred of the enemy has been transformed into each specific person, becoming the goal and the ideal of the whole nation’s burning aspiration with the purpose of gaining independence, freedom besides people being in control of their lives and being free in developing and innovating to build an increasingly dignified and beautiful country, on par with the great powers of the five continents of the world.

In most congresses, our Party spends a certain amount of time discussing the issue concerning human beings, affirming that human beings are considered as the center and the subject of all activities. The 4th Party Central Committee Conference (Term VII) emphasized that: “Human beings are the most precious capital, taking care of human happiness is the highest goal of our regime. We need to learn deeply how to identify the great values ​​and the decisive significance of the human factor, the subject of all creation, all sources of material wealth and culture, all civilizations of nations, all of which must come from the spirit profound humanity to comprehensively develop people, to build a fair and compassionate society and to establish truly good and progressive relationships among human beings in production and life. Regarding the report summarizes a number of theoretical and practical issues over-20-year innovation (1986 – 2006), our Party affirms that: “People are the most precious capital, developing people as both a driving force and is the goal of the revolution and the cause of national innovation… People and human development are placed at the center of the socio-economic strategy, expanding opportunities and improving conditions for human resource development”.

The 12th Party Congress affirmed that: “Building the comprehensive development of the Vietnamese people must become a goal of the development strategy. Summarizing and building the cultural value system and standard value system of Vietnamese people in the period of industrialization, modernization and international integration”. In particular, the 13th Party Congress determined that the basic and central policy throughout the development of a prosperous and happy country is to “maximize the human factor, considering people as the center and the subject, the most important resource and the goal of development”.

From the Party’s views on human beings, we can withdraw some basic issues as follows: Firstly, human beings have a particularly important position and role in the development process of the nation’s history, these are the most important resource, no other resource can replace human resources. Secondly, our Party has diverse mechanisms and policies to educate, to foster, and to develop human beings comprehensively in terms of virtue, mind, body and beauty to serve and to create a favorable environment for human beings in order to contribute their talents towards the prosperous and happy development of the country.

Thanks to that, in recent years, under the leadership of the Party, the management of the State, the administration of the Government, and the drastic participation of the political system at all levels, people have been comprehensively developed in all aspects. The United Nations has recognized Vietnam as one of the leading countries in realizing the Millennium Development Goals. In 2019, that Vietnam’s human development index (HDI) reached 0.704 implies the belonging to the group of countries with high HDI in the world, especially compared to those of other countries with the same level of development. The average life expectancy of the population increased from 62 years in 1990 to 73.7 years in 2020. Universal primary education in 2000 and universal lower secondary education in 2010 and so on.

Nevertheless, in the development process of the country, human beings have not fully promoted their talents and intelligence towards industrialization, modernization, opening up, and international integration: Mechanisms and policies for human development in each field and profession are not specific and clear, especially those concerning training and fostering high-quality human resources and attracting talents; The gap between rich and poor between urban and rural areas, especially in remote areas, is being large; Heavily-individualistic people besides corruption negatively affect the Party’s reputation and positive traditions of the nation and so on. Our country is facing opportunities mixed with risks and challenges: Strategic competition among major countries; Disputes over sovereignty, borders, territories and islands have been taking place whereas the traditional and non-traditional security challenges are fierce and drastic; The 4.0 Industrial Revolution has a profound and comprehensive impact on human life, both contributing to improving the life quality and posing extremely dangerous consequences for people if used for the wrong purposes and so on.

Domestically, although the country has achieved many great achievements of historical significance after more than 36 years of innovation under the correct and creative leadership of the Party, many difficulties, challenges, and risks that Our Party points out are being existing; more than that, they become even more severe and complicated, a state of deterioration in political ideology, ethics, lifestyle, negativity, corruption, manifestations of ‘self-evolution’ and ‘self-transformation’. ‘Internalization’ within a section of Cadres and Party Members, especially officials with positions and powers, is being serious and so on while the goals and the tasks of the 13th Party Congress and the conclusions of the Associations are being serious. The fact that the Central Conference (Term XIII) sets out a very urgent, which cannot be delayed any further, requires all levels and branches to thoroughly grasp and seriously implement the Party’s viewpoints and ideologies: “One demands, hundreds follow”, “The front exhorts the rear”, “Agreement from top to bottom”, “Smooth vertical and horizontal lines” and so on.

Educating, fostering and promoting human beings to guarantee the stable and current sustainable development of the country

Firstly, continuing to innovate in order to improve the quality of education and to train high-quality human resources to meet the required practical requirements and tasks

The 13th Party Congress clearly stated that: “Building synchronous institutions and policies to effectively implement the policy of education and training along with science and technology is the top national policy and the key driving force towards developing the country”. Accordingly, right from all levels of education, especially high-school level, teachers and parents must orient their children’s future in choosing a career that suits their personal abilities and strengths; Paying more attention to educating ethics, personality, creative capacity and core values, especially educating the spirit of patriotism, pride, and national self-respect and so on; Integrating education of knowledge, ethics, and aesthetics beauty, life skills with physical education, improving the stature of Vietnamese people; Flexibly and creatively applying educational forms and methods suitable for each level of education, promoting the learners’ creative spirit, capacity and strengths; Building a clean, healthy, simple living and educational environment, truly a ‘launching pad’ and ‘support pillar’ for human beings. There are mechanisms and policies to encourage and to motivate learners to make inventions in order to improve the quality of education and training, making certain contributions to the overall development of the country.

High-school pupils participating in the admission and career counseling program by Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics (UEH)

Secondly, preserving and promoting the nation’s fine traditional cultural values ​​in life and work practice.

With thousands of years of history building and defending the nation, our ancestors left behind a rich tradition of experience, cultural values, ethics, and a completely specific and typical lifestyle; in other words, this is identified as patriotic tradition: the spirit of hard work, diligence, and creativity; human will and desire to rise; solidarity and love helping each other in tribulation, difficulty, studiousness, international spirit and beyond.

The 13th Party Congress clearly stated that: “Protect and promote positive and sustainable values ​​in Vietnamese cultural traditions”. Accordingly, Party Committees, Party Organizations at all levels, Heads of Agencies, Units, and Localities educate Cadres, Party members, civil servants, public employees, workers, and human beings of all walks of life regarding the positive traditions of the nation, the Party, and the locality. Concretizing and institutionalizing into specific and practical programs and actions, suitable to the characteristics, requirements and tasks of each Agency, Unit and Locality; Organizing and effectively implementing the Party’s views, guidelines and policies, and the State’s policies and laws. Paying attention and caring for the material and spiritual lives of subordinates, especially households with many difficulties; effectively resolving concerns and questions of human beings from all walks of life; linking the protection of good traditional national cultural values ​​with tourism development, promotion and introduction to the outside world; combining the protection of traditional cultural values ​​with the fight to eliminate social evils, negative habits, illegal habits that go against the national and ethnic interests and plots and tricks of “peaceful evolution” activities of other hostile and reactionary forces.

Thirdly, having appropriate and effective mechanisms and policies to motivate and to encourage people towards developing and contributing to the country.

During the process of leading the Vietnamese Revolution, our Party and President Ho Chi Minh proposed absolutely appropriate mechanisms and policies that met the aspirations and desires of people. Thanks to this, human talent and intelligence in all fields and activities of social life are stimulated and awakened. Each mechanism and policy proposed by our Party and State in recent years, in each specific field, is appropriate, creative, effective, promoting internal and external resources to accelerate the process of industrialization, modernization, building and firmly defending the Socialist Vietnamese Fatherland in the new situation. Accordingly, all levels and branches, especially leaders in each specific field and activity, must thoroughly grasp and seriously implement the Party’s policies, State policies and laws, and regulations of the State Agencies, Units, localities, and fine cultural traditions left by ancestors in the lineage and the family. The Leaders must be exemplary, pure, honorable, wholehearted and devoted to the common revolutionary mission of the Party and the People, putting the interests of the Party and the People first; Promoting the human beings’ right to mastery, seriously implementing the views and ideology of the 13th Party Congress which pointed out that “the people know, the people discuss, the people do, the people check, the people supervise, the people enjoy”. Resolutely and thoroughly eliminating from the apparatus those Cadres, Party Members, Civil Servants, and public employees who have individualistic ideology, group interests, local factions, gangs, factions, and impure hearts; Maintaining and strengthening regulations and disciplines in Agencies, Units, and Localities, ensuring that all human activities develop normally, without being hindered by any force in the process of living and doing business.

Please refer to the full article titled “Human beings – one central element deciding the stable and sustainable national development” TẠI ĐÂY

Author: Dr. Phạm Thị Kiên, Faculty of Ideology, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City

This is an article in the series of articles spreading research and applied knowledge from UEH with the “Research Contribution For All – Nghiên Cứu Vì Cộng Đồng” message, UEH cordially invites dear readers to look forward to the upcoming Knowledge Newsletter ECONOMY No. #91.

Reporting press: State Management Review  Tạp chí Quản lý nhà nước 

News & photos: Author, UEH Department of Marketing & Communication