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The vehicles transport delegates to the National Convention Centre. (Photo: VNA)

First working day of 14th National Congress of Communist Party of Vietnam

With the motto "Solidarity - Democracy - Discipline - Breakthrough - Development," the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam is taking place at the National Convention Centre in Hanoi from January 19-25, 2026, with the participation of 1,586 delegates representing over 5.6 million Party members nationwide.

From early morning, the atmosphere inside and outside the National Convention Centre was special. Sharing this atmosphere, a joyful and enthusiastic spirit towards the 14th National Party Congress has spread strongly throughout the country. Cadres, Party members, the people, soldiers of the armed forces, and the Vietnamese community abroad expressed their faith and expectations for this momentous political event of the nation.

Before the start of the first working session, leaders of the Party, State, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and delegates attending the 14th National Party Congress will lay wreaths and pay respects to President Ho Chi Minh at his Mausoleum. They will also lay wreaths and offer incense at the Monument to Heroes and Martyrs, commemorating those who bravely sacrificed their lives for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland.

At the international press conference on the 14th National Party Congress held on January 14, Standing Vice Chairwoman of the Party Central Committee’s Office Nguyen Thi Thu Ha stated that the congress will observe a minute of silence in memory of late Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and other members of the Party Central Committee who passed away during the term of the 13th congress. This is an expression of the congress’s deep affection and gratitude for the great contributions of these comrades during the past term, as well as to the cause of Party building and national development.

The congress will be honoured to welcome former members of the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Party Central Committee; Vietnamese Heroic Mothers; representatives of intellectuals, artists, religious dignitaries, and outstanding youngpeople from all over the country.

The theme of the Congress is: “Under the glorious flag of the Party, uniting in strength and determination to successfully achieve national development goals by 2030; strategic self-reliance, self-strengthening and confidence, advancing strongly in the era of the nation’s rise, for peace, independence, democracy, prosperity, affluence, civilisation and happiness, steadfastly moving toward socialism.”

The congress will discuss and approve important documents including: the Draft Political Report of the 13th Party Central Committee; the Draft Report reviewing a number of theoretical and practical issues of the socialist-oriented renewal process over the past 40 years in Vietnam; and the Draft Report reviewing 15 years of implementation of the Party Statutes (2011 – 2025), and proposals and orientations for amendments and supplements to the Party Statutes; and the Report reviewing the leadership and guidance of the 13th Party Central Committee.

To date, preparations for the congress have been completed with a spirit of innovation.

Regarding the preparation of documents, the Communist Party of Vietnam has made an important reform step, integrating three reports: the Political Report, the Socio-Economic Report, and the Party Building Report, into a single, unified, and synchronised Political Report.

Notably, for the first time, the document includes an accompanying action programme, clearly defining each project, its progress, and the responsibilities for implementation, ensuring that the Resolution can be implemented immediately after the congress.

The draft document has been sent for public feedback, attracting nearly 14 million comments, affirming a very high level of consensus between the Party's will and the people's aspirations.

The preparation of personnel for the 14th Party Central Committee was carried out by the 13th Party Central Committee and the Personnel Subcommittee in accordance with the Party's regulations, the principle of democratic centralism, and the provisions of the law; in a synchronised, scientific, systematic, rigorous, democratic, objective, and transparent manner, promoting democracy and intellectual capacity; ensuring a harmonious and reasonable balance between standards and structure; between inheritance, stability and innovation, and development; between professional training and practical skills and abilities; and between prestige, work experience and future development prospects.

Logistical preparations have been made thoroughly. Security and safety measures have been implemented decisively and comprehensively. The information and communication work regarding the 14th National Party Congress has been implemented early, with specific and systematic plans, contributing to strengthening the confidence of cadres, Party members, and the people in the congress, creating high unity within the Party and consensus in society.

According to information released on the opening day of the Press Centre for the 14th National Party Congress, 597 reporters and technicians from 113 domestic media agencies (compared to 498 domestic reporters at the 13th National Party Congress); and 79 reporters and press assistants from 43 foreign news agencies, overseas Vietnamese reporters, and reporters from political parties and ruling parties (compared to 66 international reporters at the 13th congress) registered to cover the event.

General Secretary To Lam. (Photo: Dang Khoa)

Viet Nam accepts invitation to join Gaza Peace Council

On January 16, President Trump sent a letter to General Secretary Lam, inviting the Party chief and Viet Nam to participate in the Gaza Peace Council as a founding member state, alongside the international community, to promote a sustainable peaceful solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine in the Gaza Strip.

In his reply, General Secretary Lam emphasised Viet Nam’s consistent stance of supporting and actively contributing to the international community’s joint efforts to resolve conflicts and disputes through peaceful means, in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations, while respecting the fundamental rights of the parties concerned.

Viet Nam underscored that the establishment of the Peace Council is a necessary step in implementing the Gaza peace plan adopted by the United Nations Security Council under Resolution No. 2803 on November 17, 2025. The resolution welcomes United Nations member states to participate in the Peace Council to advance peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance, and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

In this spirit, General Secretary Lam accepted the invitation and affirmed Viet Nam’s readiness to participate as a founding member state of the Peace Council, working together with the US and the international community to make positive contributions toward a long-term, comprehensive solution to the Middle East peace process, including the establishment of a Palestinian state living peacefully alongside the State of Israel.

In his letter, General Secretary Lam also proposed that Viet Nam and the US continue to strengthen cooperation to further develop the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries in a substantive and effective manner.

He underscored the importance of expanding collaboration across areas aligned with both sides’ needs and priorities, on the basis of respecting each other, safeguarding each country’s legitimate interests, and contributing positively to peace, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.

Customs clearance activities at Youyi Guan, Guangxi, China. (Photo: ifeng.com)

Guangxi (China) – Viet Nam trade exchanges reach new record

In 2025, the import–export turnover between the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China and Viet Nam surpassed the threshold of 300 billion yuan (nearly 43 billion USD) for the first time.

Chinese media, citing information from Nanning Customs, reported that the total import–export value of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 2025 reached 819.26 billion yuan, up 8.4% year on year. Of this total, Guangxi’s trade with ASEAN amounted to 429.22 billion yuan, an increase of 8%, accounting for half of the region’s total import–export value; trade with Viet Nam alone exceeded 300 billion yuan for the first time.

As a result, in 2025, Guangxi’s foreign trade maintained stable and positive growth, with a growth rate 4.6 percentage points higher than China’s overall foreign trade growth rate.

Amid increasingly deepened China–ASEAN regional economic integration, Guangxi’s import–export trade with ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, and Myanmar all recorded growth of more than 40%.

At the same time, Guangxi achieved notable results in market diversification, with import–export turnover with Latin America, the Middle East, and the European Union reaching 121.95 billion yuan, 51.1 billion yuan, and 28.15 billion yuan, respectively, representing year-on-year increases of 27.4%, 21.6%, and 46.3%.

According to Nanning Customs, Guangxi’s international trade exchanges have demonstrated strong resilience, while also benefiting from the continued development of the “border economy +” model and the rapid transformation into a “manufacturing hub”.

In 2025, Guangxi’s comprehensive trade continued to play an important role as a “cornerstone”, with import–export turnover reaching 380.7 billion yuan, up 10.7%. Processing trade and bonded logistics accounted for more than 40% of the total turnover, showing significant growth and effectively supporting the stability of industrial and supply chains.

Border trade has been playing a distinctive role, with the model of “border trade + local processing” developing strongly. The value of goods imported through border trade and processed locally reached 14.58 billion yuan, an increase of 34.8%, bringing benefits to 1.823 million border residents.

Finance Minister Nguyen Van Thang (third, from left) and Eduard Stiphout, Senior Vice President in charge of strategic supply chain and procurement at ASML (third, from right). (Photo: The Courtesy of the MoF)

Vietnam seeks cooperation with ASML to develop semiconductor industry

Vietnam is stepping up efforts to develop its semiconductor industry through cooperation with ASML, the world’s leading semiconductor equipment manufacturer from the Netherlands, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

Finance Minister Nguyen Van Thang has recently held a working session with Eduard Stiphout, Senior Vice President in charge of strategic supply chain and procurement at ASML. At the meeting, Thang highly appreciated ASML’s growing interest in the Vietnamese market, noting that the group’s dispatch of senior executives to Vietnam and its active participation in SEMIExpo Vietnam 2025 demonstrated a strong commitment to long-term strategic cooperation.

“This is vivid evidence of Vietnam’s potential, its improving investment environment, and increasingly favourable mechanisms and policies in attracting leading global technology groups,” the minister said.

Emphasising Vietnam’s determination to achieve ambitious growth targets in the coming period, Thang reaffirmed the Government’s strong interest in promoting investment in the semiconductor industry. He noted that strategic orientations, institutional frameworks and human resource development plans for the sector are being vigorously advanced.

In this context, the minister proposed that ASML coordinate with the Dutch Embassy, the National Innovation Centre (NIC) and relevant partners to develop a comprehensive roadmap, appropriate financial mechanisms, and public–private resource mobilisation models to soon establish a semiconductor training, research and development centre at the NIC’s Hoa Lac campus.

He also called on ASML to help connect qualified Vietnamese enterprises to participate more deeply in the group’s global supply chain, thereby diversifying and strengthening ASML’s supply chain resilience in Asia. At the same time, ASML’s support is sought to help Vietnamese firms develop manufacturing, research and testing infrastructure, including fab labs, semiconductor technical services, technology standards consultancy and management know-how transfer, with a view to gradually forming domestic production capabilities and supporting the establishment of Vietnam’s first chip manufacturing plant.

Training programmes, expert exchanges, internships and scholarship support in the semiconductor field were also highlighted as key areas of cooperation to help build a pool of Vietnamese engineers and specialists capable of meeting the stringent technical standards of ASML and the global semiconductor equipment industry.

For his part, Stiphout said that based on initial discussions, ASML is studying the possibility of expanding its supply chain in Vietnam, cooperating to establish a semiconductor training and R&D centre at the NIC with support from the Dutch Government, and considering setting up an official presence in Vietnam in the near future. The group is also assessing opportunities to supply equipment to potential customers in the country.

ASML holds a dominant position in the global semiconductor industry thanks to its exclusive ownership of extreme ultraviolet lithography technology, which is critical to producing advanced chips for artificial intelligence, 5G and high-performance computing. With a market capitalisation of around 400 billion USD, annual revenue of 30–35 billion USD, and more than 40,000 employees across 60 facilities worldwide, ASML plays a central role in the global semiconductor value chain, directly shaping the development roadmap of industry leaders such as TSMC, Samsung and Intel.

Thang affirmed that the MoF is committed to accompanying ASML at the highest level, assigning the NIC as the focal point to coordinate with relevant agencies to promptly address obstacles, ensure a stable and transparent legal environment, and facilitate the effective implementation of cooperation projects, thereby contributing to the development of Vietnam’s innovation ecosystem and high-tech industry.

Mui Ne Beach in Lam Dong province (Photo: VNA)

Mui Ne National Tourism Area set to become leading destination in Asia-Pacific

According to the master plan, the Mui Ne National Tourism Area will cover 14,760ha, encompassing Phu Thuy ward, Mui Ne ward, Hoa Thang commune and Phan Ri Cua commune.

The People’s Committee of Lam Dong province has issued a plan to implement the master plan on developing the Mui Ne National Tourism Area through 2040, with a vision to 2050, aiming to transform Mui Ne into one of the leading destinations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Under the plan, relevant agencies are required to review, develop and adjust urban and rural planning schemes to ensure consistency with the two-tier local administration structure and the overall development orientation of the Mui Ne National Tourism Area. The adjustments must minimise disruption to ongoing investment projects while meeting progress and quality requirements.

The province will prioritise comprehensive infrastructure investment with a view to positioning Mui Ne as a top-tier tourism hub nationally and regionally.

Local authorities are requested to closely coordinate with central agencies to accelerate key national projects, including the North – South high-speed railway, the upgrade and expansion of Vinh Hao – Phan Thiet Expressway, construction of Phan Thiet – Bao Loc – Gia Nghia Expressway, and Phan Thiet Airport. These projects are expected to provide strong momentum for socio-economic development and significantly enhance Mui Ne's accessibility for domestic and international visitors.

Public-private partnership (PPP) models will be promoted to attract private resources for the construction and operation of socio-economic infrastructure.

Environmental protection and climate change response programmes and projects will be promoted. Besides, the province will facilitate investment in high-tech and environmentally friendly projects that align with local natural conditions, while drafting a roadmap to relocate polluting industrial, handicraft and service facilities currently operating within the tourism area.

According to the master plan, the Mui Ne National Tourism Area will cover 14,760ha, encompassing Phu Thuy ward, Mui Ne ward, Hoa Thang commune and Phan Ri Cua commune. The development space is structured around the model of “one coastal corridor – three centres – multiple sea access points”. The 63-km coastal corridor will serve as the main axis linking landscapes, resorts, service centres, public spaces and beaches.

Three major tourism centres will be formed along this axis. The Phu Thuy – Mui Ne centre will function as the core area, focusing on high-end resorts, marine sports, marinas and conference facilities. The Hoa Thang centre will develop into a multi-functional entertainment hub based on local sand dunes and the Bau Trang scenic landscape, while the Phan Ri Cua centre will be oriented towards a coastal tourism city with a high-quality living environment for long-stay visitors and new urban residents.

The plan implementation is expected to create a solid legal foundation and open up significant investment and development opportunities for Lam Dong. By 2030, the area’s population is projected to reach around 200,000, rising to 300,000 by 2040, while the visitor number is expected to increase to 14 million and 25 million, respectively.

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