The Communist Parties of Vietnam and Cuba held the second theory seminar in Cuba’s capital Havana on November 10, with a focus on the parties’ role in updating socio-economic models in Cuba and the Doi Moi (renovation) in Vietnam.

Opening the event, the head of the Cuban delegation Valdes Mesa, Politburo member and Vice President of the State Council, emphasised the seminar’s significance as an opportunity for the two parties to share theoretical and practical viewpoints with a view to enhancing the parties’ role in perfecting socialism in each country.

The Cuban official noted that the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC) has made economic development its key goal since the party’s sixth congress in 2011. The congress adopted Social and Economic Guidelines, laying the foundation for a roadmap on updating the socialist socio-economic development model.

He added that the CPC’s first national conference in January 2012 also focused on making objective assessments of Party work and defining the party’s goals in the spirit of reform, willing to make any necessary change to meet the requirement of the new situation in the cause of socialism building.

On the basis of the guidelines and in this spirit, the CPC has led the country to embark on the road of modernizing the national socio-economic model along the set direction of protecting and developing prosperous and sustainable socialism in Cuba, affirming social ownership of basic means of production while recognizing the role of non-State forms of management, Valdes Mesa said.

He reported that Cuba has entered a new stage in implementing the Social and Economic Guidelines with more complicated and greater policies, but all steps will be made in a cautious and steady manner to ensure discipline and prevent any gaps that can result in mistakes and a deviation from the set goals.

He added that the Council of Ministers has also adopted a long-term socio-economic development plan with a strategic vision to 2030 with the goal of mobilizing all resources for the sustainable development of the national economy.

Meanwhile, the head of the Vietnamese delegation Tran Quoc Vuong, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Office Chief of the Party Central Committee, presented an overview of the nearly 30 years of the Doi Moi cause in Vietnam, which was initiated by the Communist Party of Vietnam at its 6th National Congress in 1986. He stressed that Vietnam has reaped historical achievements in socialism building and national defence, rising above socio-economic crisis and the under-developed status and pushing ahead with industrialisation and modernization in parallel with developing the knowledge-based economy.

He went on to say that at the same time, socialist democracy has been promoted and expanded; the national great unity has been strengthened and enhanced; the building of a strong Party, a law-governed State and the political system has been promoted; national independence, sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity as well as the socialist system have been firmly protected; external relations have been increasingly expanded and deepened, thus elevating Vietnam’s position and prestige in the international arena.

The Vietnamese party official stated that those achievements have created important prerequisites for the country to continue with its Doi Moi policy and enjoy further development in the time ahead, while testifying to the correctness of the Party’s policy and the fact that the path to socialism chosen by Vietnam suits the country’s conditions and the trend of the era.

The two delegations are expected to deliver more reports and exchange opinions on a range of issues important to Cuba’s efforts to update its economic model and Vietnam’s Doi Moi cause.-VNA