Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh: Increasing national soft power through culture

At the first Congress of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for the 2025-2030 term, Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh made many contributions and suggested that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism implement them in the new term, in which the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized increasing national soft power through culture.

Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh presented flowers to congratulate the first Party Congress of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, term 2025 - 2030.

Culture is soft power, spiritual foundation, driving force for national development.

At the Congress, Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh acknowledged and commended the efforts of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in leading and directing the achievement of many outstanding and important results in the recent past. From there, Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh requested the Executive Committee of the new term 2025 - 2030 to continue to inherit the results and advantages that have been achieved, and limit shortcomings so that the next term can do better than the previous term...

In his speech, the Deputy Prime Minister repeatedly affirmed the core role of culture in the cause of sustainable national development. Culture is not only a spiritual foundation but also an endogenous strength, a soft power of the nation in the era of integration and development.

“We must look far and wide, think deeply and do big things, value time, make decisions at the right time; choose the focus and key points; do each task and finish it, following the spirit of 'Six clears' that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized. In addition, it is necessary to build an open mechanism to clear and mobilize resources, focusing on attracting resources from the people and private enterprises... The Ministry also advised the Government Party Committee and submitted to the Politburo the Project 'Internationalizing Vietnamese culture and Vietnamizing international culture', this is very new and very good content...", Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh emphasized.

Vietnam's culture, its current heritages recognized by the world, and Vietnamese culinary culture have also "made their name" on the world map in recent times. The Deputy Prime Minister requested that units must absorb and implement the goal of building an advanced Vietnamese culture with a strong national identity. At the same time, do a good job of propaganda, raising awareness of the position, role, and importance of culture, sports, and tourism in building the great national unity bloc and common development...

“The Party and State pay special attention to the development of Vietnamese culture and people. Culture is identified as the spiritual foundation and an important endogenous strength in the cause of rapid and sustainable development of the country. The strong development of digital technology, AI, digital media, and creative industries has opened up new spaces, new tools, and new markets for the culture, sports, and tourism sectors to approach creativity and connect deeply... Another point is that the demand for enjoying culture, sports, and tourism is increasingly high, diverse, and of better quality. People are increasingly interested in spiritual life, health care, and physical and mental development,” Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh emphasized.

In the new term, the Deputy Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to focus on the following contents: Continuing to improve the quality of Party building and the political system, building the Party Committee of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, this is a key issue. Focus on perfecting institutions, policies and laws on culture, so that culture increases the endogenous strength of the country, truly becomes one of the development resources of the country, forming a standard of conduct in modern society. Summarize and conclude the Projects in 2025 and proactively develop the tasks of the Industry for the period 2026 - 2030; proactively and promptly implement the Resolutions, Directives and Conclusions of the Central Committee on the National Target Program on Cultural Development for the period 2025 - 2035; Vietnam's cultural development strategy to 2030, Vietnam's sports development strategy to 2030, Cultural and Sports infrastructure network planning with a vision to 2045... Building policies and laws to promote the development of cultural industry, entertainment industry, breakthroughs in tourism, and changes in sports in the spirit of increasing national soft power through culture...

Presidium of the 1st Congress of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, term 2025 - 2030.

In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister requested the Ministry to focus on streamlining the organizational apparatus, building a team of dedicated cadres for the country, for the people, for the development of the country in the spirit of "streamlining - compact - strong, effective, efficient, effective", each cultural cadre is a representative of a cultural village.

At the same time, create a breakthrough in institutions, mechanisms, and policies to create space for development in the direction of transforming cultural values ​​into resources for development, have mechanisms to promote and attract resources, especially business, participate in investment in cultural development; promote scientific and technological research in the fields of culture, sports, and tourism; promote the promotion of quintessence and promote cultural promotion and absorb the quintessence of human culture...

Determined to innovate thinking in law-making, following the guiding ideology of General Secretary To Lam, the National Assembly, the Government, the Prime Minister and promoting decentralization, delegation of power, reduction and simplification of administrative procedures associated with strong and comprehensive digital transformation to open up, liberate creativity, dedication, and spread the good values ​​of intellectuals, artists, etc.

Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh also requested the Ministry to build a healthy cultural environment, creating a solid foundation to build Vietnamese people who are confident, self-reliant, self-reliant, self-reliant, and proud of their nation, and to organize well cultural, artistic, sports, and tourism activities at the national, regional, and international levels with a spirit of innovation and new spirit, highlighting cultural traditions, national civilization, and culture as the soft power of the nation and making Vietnam an attractive destination for cultural, sports, and tourism exchanges.

Regarding the field of journalism and publishing, the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that it is necessary to focus on building a revolutionary press, professional, modern and humane publishing... so that the press can truly be the core, play a pioneering role on the ideological and cultural front, make great contributions to the country's revolutionary cause, arouse trust and responsibility and contribute to creating social consensus.

Cultural program to welcome the Congress.

Regarding the field of sports, the Deputy Prime Minister requested to build physical exercise and sports movements in accordance with the advice of beloved Uncle Ho; physical exercise and self-care are the duties of every patriot. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen physical education and school sports to truly improve the physical strength and stature of the people, contributing to creating a source for high-performance sports, forming a generation of Vietnamese people with pure hearts, bright spirits, strong will, determination and great ambitions....

In the field of tourism, the Deputy Prime Minister proposed to build and develop a national tourism brand, imbued with national identity, "bringing smiles to tourism", developing a number of high-quality tourism products with international competitiveness. By 2030, Vietnam will strive to be among the top 30 countries with the world's leading tourism competitiveness, attracting about 45 million international visitors and total tourism revenue of about 13 - 14% of GDP...

“In the era of strong and prosperous development of the nation, I hope and believe that cadres, civil servants, public employees, artists will strongly promote the tradition of achievements, continue to promote the pioneering spirit, breakthrough, create development space, promote creativity, liberate productive forces, form good values, have the ability to strongly connect with economic, political, social, scientific pillars to serve the Fatherland, serve the people for the goal of a rich people, strong country, democracy, fairness, civilization. I believe that with the glorious tradition of 80 years of formation, the spirit of solidarity has been developed, the innovation of responsibility will be a great success for the Party Congress of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism”, Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh expected.

Journalism - serving the country and people, the sharp ideological weapon of the Party

Speaking at the Congress, Mr. Luu Dinh Phuc, Director of the Press Department (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) said that the Vietnamese revolutionary press has passed the milestone of a century with important contributions to the revolutionary cause of the Party, but currently the press is facing the problem of revenue sources and development models after streamlining.

The press planning was issued after 5 years, by 2019, 58 newspapers and 115 magazines were reduced, affecting about 1,500 people. This streamlining revolution, after only 6 months, the press sector has reduced 38 newspapers, nearly 100 magazines, 33 radio and television stations, affecting about 18,000 people, of which about 9,000 people in the radio and television sector, nearly 44% of the press workforce nationwide was affected by the arrangement and streamlining.

“The big question is: After streamlining, what are the views and policies of the Party and State to develop the press; what will be the role and position of the press in the new context; what must the press do to be worthy of the tradition and the noble award that the Party and State have just awarded the “Ho Chi Minh Medal for the second time”, to fulfill its mission of serving the country, serving the people, and being the sharp ideological weapon of the Party. New requirements for management work are fundamental issues such as: The press must maintain its dominant role, master the information front, so that people understand, believe and follow; to gather trust in the leadership of the Party. The press participates in protecting the Party's ideological foundation, protecting and promoting national cultural values, building and comprehensively developing the Vietnamese people in the new era. At the same time, the current revolutionary press force is large but scattered, so it is necessary to build a strong national main press force with far-reaching influence. domestically and internationally, playing a dominant role, being a pillar of leadership, keeping the pace of information orientation...", Mr. Luu Dinh Phuc shared.

Mr. Luu Dinh Phuc, Director of the Press Department, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, spoke at the Congress.

According to Mr. Luu Dinh Phuc, in the process of streamlining, the press has contributed significantly to creating momentum to promote awareness of change, making society and people clearly see the benefits brought by the "streamlining" revolution, which is to reduce the burden on the state budget, increase people's trust in the public apparatus, create an open and transparent investment and business environment, contributing to rapid and sustainable socio-economic development.

Along with that, the press must fan the desire to develop a strong, prosperous country, national pride, self-confidence, self-reliance, self-reliance, national aspirations, aspirations to get rich, aspirations to rise. The machine has turned and the media must create momentum to push that machine to turn faster, towards the goal of benefiting the people, society, businesses, enhancing the national competitive position, affirming the role and wise direction of the Party, very much in line with the people's wishes, creating momentum to take off, bringing our country to rise in the new era...

From the practice of building models and policy mechanisms for press development in the lean revolution, Director Luu Dinh Phuc presented a number of lessons. One of the important lessons is the lesson about the media posture starting from the people's hearts, promoting the strength of the people's media posture in implementing the Party's Resolution.

For people to understand, believe and follow, policies, orientations and propaganda must be for the people, closely linked to the people, words must go hand in hand with actions. Communication cannot be separated from mass mobilization work - every cadre and party member must be a "journalist" in action: receptive, exemplary, persuasive, respectful of the people, and solving problems with reason and emotion.

According to Mr. Luu Dinh Phuc, many hot spots and social conflicts stem from poor and unconvincing propaganda work. Therefore, along with propaganda through the press, each cadre and party member must be a skillful mass mobilization cadre, exemplary, open-minded, listen to the people, respect the people, solve problems with reason and emotion, build an open and transparent administration; resolve small conflicts well; strictly implement democracy at the grassroots level, the principle of democratic centralism within the Party; democracy in each agency and unit.

In addition, there is a lesson on studying and thoroughly grasping the spirit of the resolution: More than anyone else, the head of the Party Committee and the person doing the management work must grasp the spirit of the Party's resolution, have empathy, and have a clear ideology, then the implementation will be correct, accurate and effective. The lesson on implementing the resolution from a general perspective: With the major decisions of the Party and State on streamlining the apparatus, including the press, it is necessary to place that policy in the overall common goals of the country to have a broader perspective, see the social meaning, the humanistic meaning, see the aspiration for development and advancement of the country, so that from there there is a basis for orientation, doing ideological work in implementation.

Especially the lesson of consistency in perception and determination in action. The lean revolution is associated with the institutional revolution, so it requires the head of the Party Committee to have consistent perception, sharp thinking, adaptability, flexible adaptation and high determination in organization and implementation; perception and action must go hand in hand; words and deeds must be unified, from there we can be resolute and determined in decentralization, delegation of authority, and streamlining of management objects.

Hong Phuong/News and People Newspaper

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/pho-thu-tuong-mai-van-chinh-gia-tang-suc-manh-mem-quoc-gia-thong-qua-van-hoa-20250626131031802.htm