Conference on Comments on Draft Documents of the 14th Congress: Promoting the Intelligence and Responsibility of VNU Scientists

This is an activity of special political and academic significance, demonstrating the sense of responsibility, intelligence and enthusiasm of the intellectuals and scientists of VNU in participating in planning the country's development strategy in the new period.
The conference was chaired by Associate Professor Dr. Hoang Minh Son (Director of VNU) and Professor Dr. Phung Huu Phu (Chairman of the Science and Training Council of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities). Also attending the conference were Associate Professor Dr. Pham Van Linh (Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council) and representatives of leaders of central departments, ministries, branches, Hanoi Party Committee, leaders of VNU and many scientists from many fields.
VNU - a great intellectual center contributing to the country's development vision
In his opening speech, VNU President Hoang Minh Son emphasized the special importance of giving comments on the Draft Documents of the 14th Congress, considering this an opportunity for VNU intellectuals to directly participate in the process of establishing a long-term vision for the country. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Minh Son said that the 14th Congress is a turning point when summarizing 40 years of innovation, 35 years of implementing the Platform, and at the same time determining the goal of making Vietnam a developed, high-income country by 2045. In the context of deep strategic competition and technological transformation, the requirement for the Document is to demonstrate strong innovative thinking and strategic forecasting ability. As the leading higher education institution in the country, VNU-Hanoi is responsible for taking the lead in implementing these major orientations. VNU-Hanoi will continue to develop an advanced research university model; build an innovation ecosystem, centers of excellence, and science and technology incubators; promote comprehensive digital transformation in training and administration; and strongly contribute to discovering and nurturing talents, training a team of high-quality intellectuals, experts, scientists, and managers for the country.
Besides, with its strengths in basic sciences, social sciences and humanities and interdisciplinary fields, VNU can make profound contributions to the development of innovation theories, building a system of Vietnamese cultural values, proposing a model of sustainable socio-economic development, and perfecting national institutions and policies in the new context.
Scientific and multi-dimensional perspectives and comments from VNU
The conference to contribute comments on the draft documents to be submitted to the 14th National Congress of the Party was held in a democratic, responsible, scientific and constructive spirit. Scientists and experts focused on discussing the key contents of the draft documents, especially issues on development vision, new growth drivers, education - training and science - technology development, high-quality human resource development, as well as the role of Vietnamese culture and people in the country's sustainable development. Prof. Dr. Vu Minh Giang (Chairman of the Science and Training Council of VNU) assessed that the Draft Document was carefully prepared, consistently demonstrating the viewpoint of considering people as the center of development - a great idea repeatedly emphasized by General Secretary To Lam. According to the Professor, culture is not just a field but must be seen as an "endless resource", capable of transforming national values ​​into national competitive resources, so the role of culture needs to be further emphasized in the overall development model.
From the perspective of heritage and sustainable development, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quang Ngoc (Vice President of the Vietnam Historical Science Association) said that cultural heritage is the core of national identity. He emphasized that Hanoi has many conditions to turn heritage into a driving force for green development and cultural tourism development if there is a methodical strategy associated with conservation.   Regarding science and technology, Prof. Dr. Chu Duc Trinh (Rector of the University of Technology) especially emphasized the need to remove institutional bottlenecks so that science and technology can truly become a pillar of development. From the practice of surveying enterprises, the Professor pointed out the situation of "not being able to spend investment money on science and technology" due to the unclear mechanism, causing Vietnam to miss many opportunities in the context of FDI increasing strongly in R&D investment in Vietnam. He recommended creating stronger motivation for enterprises, promoting R&D, product commercialization and digital transformation as a new production method, in order to improve national productivity and competitiveness.
In the field of natural sciences, Associate Professor Dr. Tran Quoc Binh (Vice Principal of the University of Natural Sciences) suggested that the Document should emphasize the spirit of Resolution 71 on elite training, enhancing autonomy and acumen in opening strategic fields such as quantum science and meteorology.
Regarding the growth and economic model, Associate Professor Dr. Le Trung Thanh (Rector of the University of Economics) proposed that the document should clearly quantify strategic goals, such as the proportion of digital economy, knowledge economy or investment in R&D until 2030. He noted that it is necessary to establish the central role of enterprises in innovation, including supporting Vietnamese enterprises to invest abroad, as well as considering high-quality human resources as a breakthrough of the new growth model.
Concluding the conference, Prof. Dr. Phung Huu Phu highly appreciated the quality of the contributions of professors and experts, considering them to be heartfelt opinions, going straight to the core issues of the Draft Document. He emphasized the richness and multidimensionality of the viewpoints clearly demonstrating the academic identity and strategic thinking capacity of the VNU intellectual team. The contributions not only focused on major orientations in politics, economics - institutions, education - training, culture - society, resources - environment and foreign affairs - security, but also made very specific recommendations, with scientific basis and high practical value. Outstanding contributions of scientists from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities
At the conference, scientists from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities exchanged and contributed many important ideas, contributing to perfecting social and humanistic issues in the documents of the 14th National Party Congress.
Regarding the role of the people as the subject, Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan, Principal of the school, said that in the document, the concept of "democracy" appeared 30 times and "great solidarity" appeared 11 times, showing that this is a very important ideological pillar. The professor believes that in order to promote real democracy, it is necessary to build a favorable and trustworthy coordination mechanism so that the people can participate in the entire process of "people knowing, people discussing, people doing, people checking". Democracy must be associated with responsibility and discipline.Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tuan Anh (Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities) focused on clarifying the issue of sustainable social development management, ensuring social progress and equity, and caring for people's lives. The professor emphasized the need to shift from "social management" to "social development management", mobilizing many subjects to participate in the process of discovering and solving social problems, while improving transparency and efficiency in management.Prof. Dr. Lai Quoc Khanh (Vice Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities) proposed four key groups of opinions to complete the content of building a rule-of-law state in the draft document. These are the issues about the nature and goals of the Socialist Rule-of-law State of Vietnam; building a rule-of-law state in the digital age, operating on the basis of digital data, digital technology and digital thinking; building a rule-of-law society, respecting the law in all social life; building a culture of rule of law and public ethics, and proposing to include the criteria of rule-of-law culture in evaluating officials. Prof. Lai Quoc Khanh emphasized that the concept of a rule-of-law state must take the people as the subject of power and proposed to add the content of "digital rule-of-law state" to adapt to digital transformation.Presenting a paper on promoting the building and rectification of a clean and strong Party in all aspects, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Quang Lieu (Principal of the High School for the Gifted in Social Sciences and Humanities) contributed ideas on improving the leadership capacity, governing capacity and fighting strength of the Party; at the same time, he suggested clarifying the evidence of "breakthroughs" and "outstanding results" in Party building work to increase the persuasiveness of the document.The University of Social Sciences and Humanities will coordinate with the Office of VNU to synthesize, refine and develop an official report to send to the Document Subcommittee of the 14th National Party Congress.