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Вестник Челябинского государственного университета. 2018. № 3 (413). Экономические науки. Вып. 60. С. 142—148.
УДК 339.9 ББК 65.9(5 Вье)
SOCIALISM AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM
Prof. Dr. Pham Van Duc
Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Graduate Academy of Social Sciences, Hanoi, Vietnam
The great success of the cause of renovation and openness in Vietnam and China has supplemented new elements to the ways and measures of building socialism for the countries taking the 'abridged' transition course to socialism. The success also affirms that the consistency of Marxism does not mean to apply it dogmatically and mechanically. Marxism should be applied scientifically and creatively in new historical conditions. The creativity in the application, supplementation and perfection of Marxism to make it appropriate to new historical circumstances is the correct way to defence and follow consistently Marxism. In the case of Vietnam, the practice of building of socialism, especially from the period since 1986 when Vietnam has engaged in the process of national comprehensive renovation, is the confirmation the creative implementation of Marxism Leninism to the specific cultural and social condition of Vietnam by the President Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party of Vietnam.
1. Ho Chi Minh thought on socialism and building socialism in Vietnam
We must affirm that Ho Chi Minh's thought on socialism is a direct result from his appropriation of the view of Marxism-Leninism on socialism. However, during the process of appropriation of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh was able to implement creatively it into the concrete conditions of Vietnam, a country having a time-honoured Eastern culture. We can see it concretely in many his arguments, where he talked about the application of Marxism-Leninism and foreign experiences into the concrete circumstances of Vietnam.
The most valuable thing Ho Chi Minh found in Marxism is its dialectical method. He affirmed that Marxist dialectical method is a scientific world-view and revolutionary weapon that could bring felicity for humanity. The method helped him to apply universal principles in concrete conditions and circumstances. All kinds of dogma and mechanism are alien to the dialectical method. He pointed out that "Marx built his teaching on the foundation of a certain philosophy of history, but which history? The European history. What is Europe? It is not the whole humanity" [1. P. 464—465].
Thanks to the dialectical method of Marxism, Ho Chi Minh was able to deal skilfully the relationship between the particular and the universal, nation and humanity, tradition and modernity, individuals and society, theory and practice in the process of development. He realized the unity between theory and practice as the basic principle of Marxist dialectical method. Ho Chi Minh wrote "while emphasizing the importance of theory, comrade Lenin repeatedly mentioned that revolutionary theory is not a dogma but the lodestar guiding revolutionary actions; theory
is not some thing fixed and rigid but fully creative; theory must be constantly added by the new conclusions drawn from the living practice... we should concretize Marxism- Leninism to make it appropriate to every concrete circumstance and condition" [1. P. 464—465]. He pointed out that "to learn about Marxism-Leninism is to learn about its spirit to deal with all works, all peoples and one's own self. learning is needed for acting. Theory should go together with practice. Learning should not be for the sake of rote learning or decoration" [6. P. 247].
Ho Chi Minh criticizes two erroneous tendencies in the mechanistic application of Marxism-Leninism: dogmatic tendency that ignores practice and the tendency that overvalues experience and consequently defies theory. Ho Chi Minh wrote "Some comrades are not willing to investigate the practice of Vietnam revolution. They do not understand that Marxism-Leninism is the lodestar for action but not the Bible. Therefore, what they do is to learn by heart some sayings of Marx and Lenin to bluff people. There are also some comrades, who insist only in individual experiences. They do not understand that theory is very important for the cause of revolution. Both tendencies are erroneous. The most erroneous is the dogmatic tendency because it deceives people by using the sayings of Marx and Lenin" [Ibid.].
Ho Chi Minh always reminded new generations to supplement and develop creatively Marxism in order to make it appropriate to the characteristic features and historical conditions of every nation, especially those in the East. He wrote "Anyway, it is not possible to prohibit supplementing historical bases by adding to them the materials, which Marx could not be able to obtain in his time" and it is necessary "to rethink Marxism in terms of its historical bases
and consolidate them by Eastern ethnography" [1. P. 464—465]. Therefore, Ho Chi Minh claimed that if we want to lead the revolution to victory, avoid errors and grope our way, we need to learn the experiences from brother countries and apply them creatively [3. P. 494]. At the same time, we need to promote the cultivation and education on Marxism-Leninism in order to apply the standpoints, views and methods of Marxism-Leninism to summarize the specific features of our country. In so doing can we gradually grasp the laws of development of Vietnamese revolution and map out concrete guidelines and steps for the socialistic revolution, which is appropriate to the situation in our country. Thus, it is necessary to learn theory and promote the common theoretical level of the Party, first of all that of Party's key cadres [Ibid.].
So Ho Chi Minh always paid attention to the universality of Marxism-Leninism, but he also asked for the creative application of Marxism-Leninism. This very creativity will lead the cause of construction of socialism to victory and avoid the failure caused by dogmatism and mechanism. Ho Chi Minh wrote "at the moment we have abundant experiences of construction of socialism from brother countries but we cannot apply them mechanically because our country has its own specific features" [5]. The experience of the Soviet Union in construction of socialism was valuable but Ho Chi Minh reminded that we may have other way to socialism than that of the Soviet Union. He wrote "we cannot do the same as the Soviet Union does because the Soviet Union has its distinctive practice, custom, history and geography... we may have other path to socialism" [Ibid.].
Ho Chi Minh had his own way of articulation of the essence of socialism, which is imbued with the specific feature of Eastern nations emphasizing mainly on the problem of people's livelihood, or as in Sun Yat-sen's term: that of livelihood of the people, the existence of society, the welfare of the nation and the life of the masses. While Sun Yat-sen claimed that the principle of people's livelihood is socialism and communism, Ho Chi Minh thought that the goal of socialism is to resolve the problems of people's livelihood, bring welfare, freedom and happiness to the people.
Ho Chi Minh said that people are the root of revolution. He often reminded our cadres "to remember that people are masters. People are water, we [cadres] are the fish. All our power and strength are relied on people" [2. P. 101]. "The government is people's servant. What government does is to achieve the only goal of bring freedom and happiness to the people Therefore people's government must always give the highest priority to people's interests. We should do what is benefit for the people and avoid what is
harmful for the people" [Ibid. P. 22]. The rights the Vietnamese gained are the right to live, the right to be happy and free. His only desire is "how to bring full freedom and independence to the people. And such kind of freedom and independence should be enjoy by all the people like the way all creatures enjoy the light of the Sun" [4. P. 45]
He affirmed that "I have only one desire, a most earnest desire — to achieve complete independence for our country, complete freedom for our people, and opportunities for all our countrymen to have adequate food and clothing and education [Ibid. P. 161—162].
To the question "what is socialism?". Ho Chi Minh wrote "the goal of socialism is to improve constantly people's living standards" [7. P. 31]. Therefore the policy of the Party and Government is to take utmost care ofpeople's life "If the people suffer from hunger, the Party and Government are guilty; if the people do not have enough clothes, the Party and Government are guilty, if the people cannot have access to education the Party and Government are guilty, if the people are sick, the Party and Government are guilty" [5. P. 575] "what the Party struggle for? For people to have adequate food, shelter and be free. What every Party's member struggle for? For people to have food, shelter and be free too. What is socialism? People can have food, shelter, be happy and free" [6. P. 396].
Thus, socialism for Ho Chi Minh is first of all the problems of people's livelihood, or how to deal with the necessary needs of the people. Without proper solutions to those needs the construction of socialism is meaningless and the people will not care about socialism. As Ho Chi Minh said to your cadres "with an empty stomach people pay no attention to what you say, regardless of how you may attractively speak" [Ibid. P. 411]. The goal of socialism is to bring welfare, education and happiness to the people "Briefly and plainly speaking, socialism first of all is to liberate the working people from poverty, bring employment, welfare and happiness to the people" [8. P. 17].
So far, while talking on socialism, Ho Chi Minh always stressed, first of all, the need to improve people's living standards and provide all people with adequate foods, shelter and education "To sum up, particular attention should be paid to the works that can promote material and spiritual life of the people" [6. P. 396]. Ho Chi Minh affirmed that "we has gained independence and freedom but independence and freedom have no significance at all if our people still suffer from hunger and shortage. The people understand clearly the value of freedom and independence only when they are provided with adequate food and shelter" [Ibid.].
Those thoughts of Ho Chi Minh have been inherited and further developed by the Communist Party of Vietnam, especially during the cause of country's renovation oriented towards the goal of "wealthy people, strong country and a democratic, just, and civilized society", which expresses the essence of the socialist society the Vietnamese are building. The concrete manifestation of that essence can be seen clearly in the Party's strategy of fast and sustainable development, in which socialism and sustainable development are to create favourable conditions for all people of Vietnam to develop their potentials. Thus, we can say that the sustainable development in Vietnam is ultimately human development — the very development of man, for man and by man. Here is the intimate relation between sustainable development and the building of socialism in Vietnam.
2. Sustainable development and human development in Vietnam
In Vietnam the view on sustainable development was perceived and expressed very early in the official documents and resolutions of the Communist Party of Vietnam, especially since the beginning of the cause of Renovation in Vietnam. As early as in 1991 the Communist Party of Vietnam emphasized in the Socio-Economic Development Strategy for 1991—2000 adopted at the 7th Party's Congress that economic growth should be accompanied with social justice, social progress, cultural development and environmental protection. The 8th Party's Congress (1996) highlighted the lesson that "economic growth closely links with social justice, social progress, the preservation and development of national culture and the protection of the environment. In the Socioeconomic Development Strategy for 1991—2000 adopted at the 9th Party's Congress in 2001 the Communist Party of Vietnam affirmed "to develop rapidly, effectively and sustainably, economic growth associates with social justice, social progress and the protection of the environment". The 10th Party's Congress in 2006 continued to emphasize the lesson of rapid and sustainable development. In addition to contents on socio-economic development and environment, it also added the requirements for comprehensive human development and practicing democracy. Besides, the Congress defined the general objective of the 2006—2010 five year plan as "Further promoting both rapid, quality and sustainable economic development and human development'.
In the In the Socio-Economic Development Strategy for 2011—2020 adopted at the 11th Party's Congress in 2011 the Communist Party of Vietnam affirmed that "rapid development must be closely attached to sustainable development, which is the
throughout demand of the Strategy". This demand encompasses such key factors as "developing sus-tainably the economy... Economic growth must harmoniously associate with social justice and progress. Constantly improving the quality of people's life. Socio-economic development goes hand in hand with environment protection and improvement". Among those contents of sustainable development outlined by the Party, there are two important points related directly to human development:
First, the economic development must harmoniously associate with cultural and social development, the constant improvement of the quality ofpeople's life, the realization of social progress and social justice in every step and every guideline of development. Culture is considered as the spiritual foundation of the society, the constituting factor of stable and long-lasting value and particular national character of a nation. Culture operates as a mighty social driving force and penetrates into development process. The development of each era in each nation is imbrued with cultural character. Based on cultural foundation, human not only handles the relations with fellow-creature and natural environment in the present life, but also solves the relations with future generations in the course of development. In this sense, culture is both the result of rapid and sustainable development and the solid foundation for rapid and sustainable development. Therefore, cultural development should be put into equally-footing to and harmonious relationship with economic development. Efforts should be spared for developing healthy life, lifestyle and cultural environment. Promoting all cultural aspects so as to enhance fine values of the nation and absorb cultural quintessence of mankind and make it be both the spiritual foundation of society and driving force of development.
Practicing social justice and social progress is an important content of sustainable development. It is also the norm reflecting the nature of our regime. Serious inequity and polarization create social conflicts in a number of countries in the world and erode the growth. Therefore, Vietnam intends to realize social justice and social progress in each policy and stage of development. In fact, Vietnam has been focusing on poverty reduction, diversifying resources and mode of implementation so as to sustainably reduce poverty. People are encouraged to get rich legally, and at the same time the polarization is limited through income distribution policies and the development of open and effective social security and social welfare systems. Vietnam continues to streamline the mechanism of distribution at business entities and salary and wage policy in order to ensure equity of interests which, in turn, acts as the driving force for socio-economic development.
Additionally Vietnam pays particular attention to the cause of development of education and training, especially tertiary and vocational training, in order to turn out an appropriate structure of quality labour force in response to the need of the restructuring of the economy and transformation of growth model. Strongly enhancing medical services and promoting health care activities. Directing resolutely and comprehensively, and mobilizing the strength of entire political system to attain solid and apparent changes in the fight against corruption, social evils and traffic accidents.
Second, the mastership of the people is to be brought into full play, democracy, especially direct democracy, is to be practiced widely, an open and consensus society is to be fostered.
Practicing democracy is a constituent of sustainable development, and was stated clearly by the Party at the 10th Party Congress. Practicing democracy is to multiply the contents of sustainable development. It is stemming from a very important stance which considers human is both aim and subject of the development. Human resources are a long-term competitive advantage and decisive factor to the development of a nation. Widely practicing democracy will promote the creativity of individuals which contributes to the rapid and sustainable development of our country. The higher democracy the deeper social consensus is and the great national unity is further fortified.
In order to bring democracy into full play and make it become resources for development, two conditions should be satisfied: first, creating equal opportunity for everybody to learn and building a learning society in order to raise people's knowledge; second, practicing mastership of the people through institutional settings necessary for insuring democracy in all facets of social life and expanding direct democracy. Democracy is closely linked with discipline and laws.
Thus, the standpoint on sustainable development with concrete contents has been perceived and reflected very early by the Party and Government. Sustainable development has become a consistent policy in the leadership and governance of the process of national development in recent decades. Both within international and national level, the Vietnam Government has strongly committed to implement sustainable development as well as to link sustainable development with all-round development of man and consider human development is both the aim and driving force of the socio-economic development1.
1 Goverment's decision number 153 dated 2004 on the orientation of the strategy of sustainable development in Vietnam; the establishiment of the National Coucil for sustainable development; the project on implementation
The issue is why does Vietnam pay special attention to the role of man and the policy of human development in the Strategy of sustainable development?
In the history of economics, some pre-Marxist bourgeois economists, for example Adam Smith, regarded labour as the source of all wealth. In his Dialectics of Nature F. Engels affirmed that labour could be the source of wealth but labour alone cannot sufficient for the generation of all wealth. Labour in the combination with nature, which supplies materials for labour, could generate all wealth [9. P. 641]. Therefore, the statement that man has a decisive role in creation of wealth does not mean to isolate man from natural and other resources. On the contrary, man should be put into relationships with all available resources. Thus, man plays his role both as the subject as well as the object of socio-economic processes.
In his relations to natural and other resources man acts as the subject of exploitation and utilization. Natural and other resources themselves cannot take part in socio-economic processes; therefore cannot be driving forces for socio-economic development. The role of driving force always belongs to man. Man itself with his strength and intellect is the decisive factor for the effectiveness of exploitation and utilization of natural and other resources. This is the very dialects between man and resources.
The reality shows that thanks to advantages of geographical conditions, richness of natural resources as well as the right way to explore those advantages, some countries in the region and in the world have become rich nations with high-growth rate economies. On the contrary, as examples we can list many cases, in which man faces serious and unpredictable environmental and ecological disasters due to his irrational and unaware exploitation of natural resources for the sake of pure economic benefits.
Man not only plays a decisive role in the effective exploitation and utilization of natural and other resources but also contributes to regenerate new resources. This relates to the inheritance between different generations in the course of development of human societies. Each generation inherits resources left by previous generations and at the same time creates new resources for future generations.
Today, almost all countries in the world are well aware and declare war against the negative results brought about by the development based on the old view on growth. However, fine intentions are not the real mechanism to prevent futureless growth. The complexities of the current globalization process, the interference and manipulation of the rich na-
of the 21 Agenda and the goals of Minennium as well as other offical documents.
tions, the lack of many kinds of resources prevalent in slow-developed economies, the prevalent situation of corruption in some countries... always cause serious threats for economies oriented towards sustainable development. Being well aware of that point, the Communist Party of Vietnam affirms that "the building and development of the economy must have a cultural aim and orient toward a just and civilized society and man's comprehensive development. Culture is the result of economic development and, at the same time, a driving force of economic development. All components should be closely linked to the life and activity of the society in all spheres of politics, economy, laws, disciplines... in order to become the most important inner resources of development".
As a subject, man not only decides the efficiency of the exploitation and utilization of presently — available natural and other resources but also contributes importantly to sustainable development in the future.
As an object, man becomes the object of exploitation, utilization, investment and development. While talking about the role of human resources as the object of exploitation and utilization, people often mention about the non-exhaustedness of human resources. In recent decades scientists and policymakers in all countries worldwide come to realize that natural resources, regardless of how rich they may be, will be exhausted under the exploitation of human beings and only human resources are unlimited and non-exhaustible.
While discussing about human resources, scholars often talk about their qualitative and quantitative aspects. The quantity of human resources is labour force and labour force availability for socio-economic development. Indexes of the quantity of human resources of a nation are its population, population growth rate, average life expectancy, population structure: the proportion of working-age population and number of non-working population... The quantity of human resources plays an important role in socio-economic development. The non-correlation between the quantity of human resources and development will impact negatively on socio-economic development. Some countries, especially developing ones, suffer from the excess of labour forces and therefore in those countries employment becomes a pressing issue. Unemployment brings about many negative effects and becomes one of the causes of crimes in some societies. By contrast, in some countries with high growth rate of development, there is high demand for labour force, especially seasonal labour force, low-skilled labour force or labour force in those industries that national workers decline to take. So those countries have to import labour forces
from other nations, especially from developing ones. The import of labour force helps the imported countries to deal with the demand for labour force but on the other hand, it creates some changes in their social life.
However, the most important element in human resources is not quantity but quality of human resources. The latter is a decisive factor for socio-economic development as well as the cause of industrialization and modernization. Quality of human resources means the intellectual component of human resources or "labourers with high intelligence, high skills, good moral qualities, who have been educated and promoted by an advanced education linked closely to modern science and technology". The talking about unlimitedness and non-exhaustion of human resources means the mention about intellectual component of human resources. Alvin Toffler, an American futurist, claims that while all natural resources may be exploited to exhaustion, human intelligence will never be exhausted and "knowledge can be endlessly taken".
Because of the importance of intelligence and knowledge, most countries in the world today strive to enhance the intellectual content of their labour forces. Education and training play very important role in enhancing the knowledge component within labour forces. Historical experiences have shown that no country or nation in the world can become rich and have a high economic growth rate without universalizing general school education. Newly-industrialized countries like Singapore and South Korea, who reached a high economic growth rate in 1970s and 1980s, had universalized general school education before their economic take-off.
On the other hand, empirical researches in recent years shown that capital investment plays only small role in economic growth. The quality of labour force plays a decisive role in the value of surplus products. Moreover, in the era of scientific and technological revolutions, information and knowledge become the core components of the whole modern system.
Vietnam at the moment is classified into the group of developing countries. If we take the time when countries have started the period of industrialization as starting point for comparison, there is a fact that natural resources of developing countries are poorer than that of developed countries. Vietnam is just within that common case. While being not really rich in natural resources and also affected heavily by wars as well as mistakes of the old mechanism, in order to carry out the strategy of rapid and sustainable development, Vietnam has no other choice than to uphold and utilize properly the role of human resources. This is the very way to bring into full play country's in-
ner resources in order to accomplish successfully the national strategy of fast and sustainable development.
With the implementation of the strategy of fast and sustainable development, Vietnam has achieved very important and impressive outcomes in human development.
The average economic growth was about 7.3 %/year1 which was one of those highest growth rates of countries in the region. Average GDP per capita in 2010 is about USD 1,200 which surpasses threshold of low income developing countries. Material and spiritual life of people is considerably improved. Real average income per capita has increased about 2.3 fold over the last 10 years. Poverty reduction has attained outstanding outcomes which is highly appreciated by international community. The income gap between urban and rural areas decreased from 2.3 times in 1999 to 2 times in 2008. Children have been given due care and protection. The percentage of malnourished children under 5 years old decreased from 33.8 % to less than 18 %. Average life-span of the people increased from 67 to 72 year old. Lower secondary education has been universalized across the country. Our human development index (HDI) unceasingly increased. Its 2008 index was 0.733 which fell into the upper average nations in the world. The level of cultural appreciation and access to information by the people was apparently increased. Social security and social welfare was attached great importance and gradually expanded. Besides great results in socializing the development of social sectors, State budget financing for these sectors has constantly increased. Medical insurance coverage has been expanded from 13.4 % in 2000 up to 62 % in 2010. Gender equity posted various progress, the ratio of women holding position of parliament members and important responsibility in the political system has increased. In 2008, Vietnam accomplished most of millennium goals set forth the year of 2015.
Democracy in the society is continuously expanded, the society becomes more open and consensus; the defence and security are stably maintained; our political and social life remain stable. There have been more positive changes in the face of the country; the position and status of Vietnam in the international arena are improved and heightened; many
1 In 2010 GDP was 6.5 % while the average GDP for 2001—2010 was 7.2 %.
positive premises for fast and sustainable development have been created for improving the quality of the people.
Besides the aforesaid results, however, there exists a number of weaknesses and mismatch. Achievement attained do not match with potentiality. In the area of culture and society, there are a number of pending matters and pressing issues prolong in some aspects. Social evils tend to increase. Traffic jam and accidents are at serious level. Corruption is yet pushed back. Quality of education and training, especially at tertiary education and vocational training are poor and slowly improved. Hospitals are too crowded with low quality medical services. The above-mentioned limitation and weaknesses partly stems from objective reasons while subjective factors act as the main cause, such that: sustainable development has not been fully perceived and accordingly specified consistently in policies, programming, planning and regulatory tools. In management and operation, it is biased on growth rate without giving due consideration to quality and sustainability of the development. Drastic changes are not seen in resolution of pressing social problems. The process of programming and planning, the formulation of socio-economic development projects and construction thereof, the implementation of environment protection policy have not been closely incorporated and coordinated. There has been no apparent and effective mechanism of management and supervision of sustainable development. The mastership of the people, especially the direct democracy, has not been brought into full play.
The national cause of socialistic-oriented renovation, building and development in Vietnam under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam has been underwent the path of more than 30 years. For that time, Vietnam has made many great and historically significant achievements in all areas of the social life. The standpoint of rapid and sustainable development has been being implemented steadfastly, especially in respect to human development. Man has been posited into the central position, both as the aim and the driving force of the socio-economic development. We can say that in Vietnam today, sustainable development aims for no other target than human development, improvement of the quality of human life; in its turn, human development serves as the basis and most solid foundation for the implementation of sustainable development. This is the dialectics of development in the modern society.
Information about the author Prof. Dr. Pham Van Duc — Vice-President of Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, President of Graduate Academy of Social Sciences, Hanoi, Vietnam. ducphilosophy@yahoo.com
Bulletin of Chelyabinsk State University.
2018. No. 3 (413). Economic Sciences. Iss. 60. Рp. 142—148.
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