In particular, at the opening session on the morning of January 20, 2026, on behalf of the 13th Central Committee of the Party, General Secretary To Lam presented a report on the documents submitted to the Congress, which emphasized the strong shift to the thinking of "creating development".
Along with the presentation of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism - Nguyen Van Hung, the Congress outlined a comprehensive picture, where culture is placed in the center, identified as a core internal resource for the country to develop sustainably.
Strategic thinking shift
The history of the Vietnamese revolution has proven that culture is the crystallization of the good values of the nation through thousands of years of building and defending the country. It is this important endogenetic resource that has nurtured the intelligence, soul, spirit and bravery of Vietnamese people. Historical practice shows that whenever the country faces dangers or challenges, the spirit of great national unity, with a passionate patriotic tradition and the will to self-reliance and self-strengthening, has become an unparalleled strength. That strength stems from compassion, affection, the spirit of using great justice to overcome cruelty, using benevolence to replace violence, and the ability to inherit and create in absorbing the quintessence of humanity.
Clearly recognizing that importance, right from the time the Party was newly established, the Party and President Ho Chi Minh determined the special position of culture. The 1943 Outline on Culture, the first platform of the Party on culture, established culture as one of the three key fronts along with politics and economy. This thinking and vision continued to be inherited and developed through the Congresses. President Ho Chi Minh, an outstanding cultural figure, affirmed that culture must aim for the nation to realize independence, self-reliance, and autonomy, and culture must guide the nation.
At the 14th Party Congress, cultural thinking made a breakthrough, associated with the thinking of "creating development". The Political Report presented by General Secretary To Lam identified 12 major orientations for the country in the new period. In this strategic structure, culture no longer stands isolated or only plays a supporting role, but is placed at the center of national development architecture. If culture was previously often viewed from the perspective of "spiritual foundation", now culture is established as an internal resource directly contributing to sustainable development. The new development model identifies socio-economic development and environmental protection as the center, Party building as key, national defense and security as important, and cultural and human development as the foundation and driving force to realize the aspiration to rise.
This arrangement has important methodological significance. To develop quickly and sustainably, the nation must move forward from a solid foundation. This foundation is not limited to physical infrastructure or economy, but is capacity, discipline and social trust - factors constituted from culture and people. Accelerating development on a weak cultural foundation, lacking a common value system, lacking standards of conduct or a culture of compliance and creativity will lead to the risk of collapse. Therefore, the 14th National Congress and Resolution 80-NQ/TW of the Politburo have placed culture in the right position as a condition for all great aspirations, as a pillar and regulatory system for development.
3 major orientations to promote endogenous strength
To realize the pillar role of culture in the new era, Minister Nguyen Van Hung presented 3 major strategic orientations, aiming to transform cultural strength into socio-political strength.
The first orientation identifies cultural and human development as an important endogenetic resource, a great driving force for rapid and sustainable development. Culture must be placed in a comprehensive relationship, closely linked and harmonious with politics, economy, society, defense, security and foreign affairs. In the final analysis, the development of society is the development of culture, and the sublimation of culture represents the peak of that development. This view affirms that economic development, political and social stability are prerequisites for building culture, but conversely, culture is the driving force promoting economy and politics.
The second orientation emphasizes the organic relationship between culture and people. Culture originates from the human factor, and people are both creative subjects and beneficiaries of cultural achievements. The purpose of cultural development is to improve human character and capacity, and at the same time build people to continue developing culture. The strategy in the new era requires building a synchronous cultural environment associated with building socialist people. The effective implementation of the national value system, cultural value system, family value system and Vietnamese human standards is a decisive factor in creating creative motivation, bravery, intelligence and arousing the aspiration to rise up of the nation.
The third orientation affirms that culture in the new era must take the happiness of the people and the longevity of the nation as the highest goal. Building and developing culture is a long-term revolutionary cause, requiring perseverance and participation of the whole society. Only when all internal resources in the whole people are mobilized can this cause win victory. This process requires the ability to harmoniously handle dialectical relationships: between building and resisting, between tradition and modernity, between preservation and development, and especially between real life and virtual space in the context of strong digital transformation.
Science and technology is the central driving force
Based on the 12 major orientations of the Political Report and the presentations at the Congress, the system of cultural development solutions is built comprehensively, in which the role of science and technology and innovation is highlighted.
The first and most important solution is to strongly and comprehensively innovate thinking and unify awareness of cultural development. It is necessary to deeply realize that people are the foundation, resource and regulatory system for development. The key task is to foster the national, family and human value system, nurture patriotism, compassion, responsibility, honesty, creativity and discipline. In particular, it is necessary to create a healthy cultural environment to nurture and spread good values, while protecting them from the negative impacts of the market economy and digital space. Thinking innovation must be concretized by integrating cultural goals into socio-economic development planning strategies, enhancing the responsibility of leaders.
The second solution focuses on perfecting institutions in a constructive direction, aiming to liberate and unlock resources. The work of reviewing, supplementing and perfecting laws, mechanisms and policies related to cultural investment, heritage conservation and cultural industry is urgent. It is necessary to focus on perfecting integration institutions in accordance with international practices, removing bottlenecks in investment mechanisms and socialization.
The third solution to determine investment in culture is to invest in sustainable development and the future of the nation. In addition to mobilizing financial resources, it is necessary to pay special attention to improving the quality of human resources - the team that directly creates and leads cultural values. The team of intellectuals, artists and cultural managers needs to improve their professional capacity, professional ethics and technology adaptation ability.
The fourth solution considers the development of cultural industry and creative economy as new growth drivers. This sector not only directly contributes to GDP growth, creating jobs but also increasing national soft power. To develop this ecosystem, close connection between the State, businesses, creative communities and the market is needed.
The fifth solution, and this is a special highlight in the Political Report at the 14th Congress, is to promote the development of science, technology, innovation and digital transformation. According to 12 major orientations identified, science and technology and digital transformation must become the central driving force of development. In the cultural field, this means that technology is not only a supporting tool but also a platform to improve the creative productivity and competitiveness of cultural products. Digital transformation must become a tool to improve the efficiency of cultural management, national autonomy capacity and ensure cultural security in cyberspace. This is a method to create new cultural business models, create new jobs and new added value, helping Vietnamese culture dominate the digital space and spread strongly.
The sixth solution is to proactively integrate internationally in culture. It is necessary to shift thinking from simple exchange to deep cooperation, in order to promote the soft power of the nation. The communication strategy to promote Vietnam's image abroad needs to identify culture as the pillar and central content.
Value system and National Governance: From Orientation to Action
A special highlight in the documents of the 14th Congress is the role of the value system in shaping development. In the context of information explosion and the strong interweaving of global values, the risk of standards being shaken and beliefs being eroded is present. At that time, the value system plays the role of a compass and an underground circuit so that society does not slip out of its fundamental foundation. The building and synchronous implementation of the National Value System, culture, family and Vietnamese human standards is not just a slogan but a work of social construction.
Moreover, culture at the 14th Party Congress has been elevated to become a standard of governance and action. The political report sets out the requirement to design a power control mechanism, in which power must be within the framework of law, ethics, culture, national traditions and the people's beliefs. The link between the Congress documents and Resolution 80 clearly shows the determination to administrativeize culture in a positive sense: Bringing culture into the action program, into the supervisory mechanism and evaluation criteria.
In addition, security thinking in the new era has also deeply integrated cultural elements. The concept of "ideological cultural security" confirms the reality that national competition today is fierce in the field of values and beliefs. Cultural protection is not closed but strengthens resistance, improves the ability to distinguish right from wrong, truth from false, beauty from ugliness for society.
The 14th National Party Congress has opened a new chapter for the cause of national cultural development. Through the Political Report, our Party has affirmed its highest political determination, shifting to the thinking of "creating development", putting culture and people at the center. Culture is not only a spiritual foundation but has become an endogenous resource, driving force and regulatory system for rapid and sustainable development. Identifying science and technology, innovation and digital transformation as key driving forces will create momentum for Vietnamese culture to break through.
