Mr. Chairman,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the outset, I would like to thank the Central Committee of Communist Party of China for inviting us to Beijing to attend the 3rd International Conference of Asian Political Parties, and for the warm reception and cordial hospitality accorded to the Vietnamese Delegation. We take this opportunity to express our deep admiration for the great achievements that the fraternal Chinese people have recorded under the leadership of the Communist Party of China in their cause of reform, openness and building socialism of Chinese peculiarities.

Our warmest regards and best wishes are also extended to other delegations of Asian political parties attending this Conference.

Our Conference takes place at a time when Asia and the world at large are facing enormous opportunities. Since the late 20th century, many Asian nations have strongly emerged with economic miracles. Countries in the region have successfully recovered from the financial and currency crisis at the end of the last century and regained the growth momentum. Instead, cooperation among countries in the continent continues to be a prevailing trend.

Nevertheless, Asia is still confronted with compelling challenges, including instability, terrorism, separatism, conflicts and tensions in some areas. In addition, our region is affected by wars and conflicts in other regions nearby, dramatic changes and acute competition in the world market as well as interference and imposition from the outside. In the meantime, poverty and backwardness remain a pressing issue in not a few countries of our continent.

The Communist Party of Vietnam has defined socio-economic development as the central task and attached great importance to the promotion of international cooperation for peace, cooperation and development. This I believe, concurs with the theme of the Conference, which is “exchanges, cooperation, development.”

From this august forum, I would like to share with you our “development philosophies”. Oriental culture is characterized by, among other things, the sense of harmony, which is always given special attention in our cause of national construction.

In the first place, the needs for spurring economic growth and addressing social issues should be harmonized. Since the launch of the reform (Doimoi) policy nearly two decades ago, the Vietnamese economy has achieved a high growth, which averaged at 7.6% per year in the 1990s and over 7% in the first years of this century. Progress has been made in the cultural, education, healthcare and other social areas. Our poverty reduction efforts have yielded encouraging results. According to the national poverty line, the ratio of poor households has dropped from 30% in 1992 to 12% in 2003.

In the economic development process, due attention is given to ensure the harmony between the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reform and other economic sectors’ growth, including private sector. Regarding privatization, big-bang approach is not our policy as workers may be thrown to the street. Vietnam therefore has adopted the policy to reduce the number of SOEs, raise their effectiveness and carry out the equitization programme. Meanwhile, other economic sectors are encouraged to develop.

Another “development philosophy” we embrace is that internal resources are decisive factors while external resources are essential. Along that line, a liberal policy has been adopted to attract foreign investment. As a result, the registered FDI capital we attracted amounted to US$ 42 billion, making up 14% of GDP.

Socio-political stability and economic development are inseparable — a “philosophy” which has been tested in many countries, including Viet Nam. Therefore, strong measures have been taken by Vietnam to accelerate the administrative reforms, combat corruption and red-tape, exercise the people’s right to mastership, enhance the role of elected bodies, promote democracy at the grass-root level under the motto:“People know — People discuss — People implement — People oversee — People benefit”.

Thanks to the aforesaid “philosophies”, encouraging achievements, such as economic growth, social progress, political stability, external relations expansion, have been recorded. We believe that under the leadership and judicious guideline of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, our country will be successful in the process of national industrialization and modernization toward the goal of building “a powerful country with wealthy people, just, democratic and advanced society”.

In its development process, Viet Nam always highly values the experience of other parties and countries for replication in our own context. We particularly appreciate the valuable experience of the Communist Party of China and People’s Republic of China in the reform and opening-up process. At this forum, we would like to express our wish to broaden cooperation with other political parties and countries in Asia in order to learn experience of each other, do away with backwardness, promote socio-economic development, improve the people’s life and maintain peace and stability of our region.

We note with great satisfaction our fine comradeship and fraternity with the Communist Party of China and the People’s Republic of China under the motto of “good neighbourliness, comprehensive cooperation, long-term stability and future outlook”. For our part, we will make every effort to work for an ever-grown friendship and reliable partnership between the two Parties and peoples.