The XIth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) will open at the National Convention Centre in Hanoi on January 12, 2011 and is expected to last for nine days.

The information was released by Pham Xuan Son, Deputy Head of the CPV Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations, in Hanoi on December 22, at a conference preceding the event to inform diplomatic corps and international organisations in Vietnam .

This is an important political event of the Vietnamese Party, State and people, Son said, adding that it is expected to draw the participation of nearly 1,400 delegates who represent more than 3.6 million Party members in 54,000 grassroots Party organisations.

Besides a strong contingent of local journalists, more than 150 foreign reporters from international news agencies will cover the event, he said.

The congress will discuss and approve a political report by the CPV Central Committee (tenth tenure), a report reviewing the 20-year implementation of the platform on national construction in the transition to socialism, and a detailed draft report that sums up the implementation of the 2001-2010 national socio-economic development strategy.

It is also expected to give approval to the platform on national construction in the transition to socialism (revised and supplemented in 2011), the 2011-2020 national socio-economic development strategy as well as the amended Party Statute.

The congress will elect a new CPVCC for the 11th tenure of 2011-2015, the highest body of the CPV leadership between the two congresses.

The entire Party members and Vietnamese people of all strata, including those living abroad – actively contributed comments to draft documents to be submitted to the XIth National Party Congress.

On the basis of the high consensus and determination of the whole Party, people and army during the discussion and formulation of the Congress’s documents, the CPV defined the theme of the XIth National Party Congress as follows: “Continuing to strengthen the Party’s leadership and combative capacity, promoting the aggregate strength of the entire nation, stepping up the renewal comprehensively and creating a foundation for Vietnam to become a modern industrialised country by 2020”.

In the next five years, Vietnam strives to attain a GDP growth rate of 7-8 percent per year with a per-capita income reaching 2,100 USD in 2015, 1.7 times higher than that of 2010.

According to Son, the CPV affirms its intention to continue using Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thoughts as its ideological foundation.

Vietnam is consistent in the path of national development towards socialism and implementing a foreign policy of independence, self-control, peace, cooperation and development; multilateralisation and diversification of relations; taking the initiative in international integration; and becoming a friend, a reliable partner and a responsible member of the international community for the interests of the nation and for a rich and powerful Socialist Republic of Vietnam./.