Cairo (VNA) – Over the past 40 years, Vietnam has achieved tremendous, comprehensive, and historically significant progress, clearly proving the effectiveness of the Doi Moi (Renewal) policy, according to Reda El Taify, former Egyptian Ambassador to Vietnam and current Director of the Egyptian Public Library Fund.
Speaking to a Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Cairo on the occasion of the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, El Taify said that the accomplishments are reflected across three major pillars – socio-economic development, national defence and security, and foreign affairs.
On the socio-economic front, the Doi Moi process brought about breakthroughs. The country has successfully transitioned from an inefficient centrally-planned economy to a socialist-oriented market economy, with the State playing a regulatory role and people and businesses actively participating. Vietnam has risen from a poor, low-income nation to a middle-income country, while maintaining high GDP growth rates over many decades, among the leading performers in the region, significantly improving living standards.
He noted that Vietnam’s economic structure has shifted positively towards industrialisation and modernisation. From failing to meet domestic food needs, agriculture has become a pillar of the economy, firmly ensuring food security and positioning Vietnam among the world’s leading agricultural exporters. Industry and services have developed strongly, particularly in processing and manufacturing, information technology, logistics and tourism. Meanwhile, improvements in the investment and business environment have enabled Vietnam to attract substantial foreign direct investment and integrate more deeply into global value and supply chains.
Socially, El Taify praised Vietnam’s achievements in poverty reduction, education, healthcare, science and technology, and social security. Particularly, the country’s Human Development Index has steadily improved, while the Vietnamese people’s material and spiritual living standards have improved, strengthening social trust and consensus.
In national defence and security, he said, Vietnam has achieved strategic-level successes in maintaining a peaceful and stable environment for development. The country has remained steadfast in safeguarding independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, while building an all-people national defence posture combined with a people’s security posture. The armed forces have been developed in a revolutionary, regular, elite and gradually modern direction, capable of addressing both traditional and non-traditional security challenges. Vietnam has also contributed to United Nations peacekeeping operations, further enhancing its international standing.
On foreign affairs, El Taify highlighted Vietnam’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation and diversification of external ties. From a country once subjected to blockade and embargo, Vietnam has established diplomatic relations with most nations worldwide and built an extensive network of strategic and comprehensive partnerships. Participation in new-generation free trade agreements has expanded markets, attracted investment and strengthened national competitiveness, while Vietnam has demonstrated a proactive, responsible role in regional and international forums.
Looking ahead, he stressed that amid rapid, complex and unpredictable global changes, strengthening strategic autonomy is vital. Strategic autonomy, he said, does not mean isolation, but the capacity to independently determine development paths, safeguard core interests and flexibly adapt to external fluctuations.
To achieve this, Vietnam should consolidate strong internal economic capacity, shift growth towards productivity, science, technology and innovation, diversify markets and supply chains, and invest in high-quality human resources and institutional reform. Strategic autonomy, he concluded, must go hand in hand with a proactive, flexible and multilateral foreign policy, leveraging Vietnam’s political credibility and image as a responsible and reliable partner to build resilience and confidence in the new development stage./.
