On the morning of May 12, 2026, the 11th Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, term 2026 - 2031, solemnly opened at the National Convention Center, Hanoi Capital.
Lao Dong Newspaper respectfully introduces the full text of General Secretary and President To Lam's speech at the 11th National Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, term 2026-2031.
Dear Presidium of the Congress,
Dear leaders and former leaders of the Party, State, and Vietnam Fatherland Front,
Dear elders, veterans, seniors, representatives of classes, peoples, ethnic groups, religions, intellectuals, artists, delegates, distinguished guests and international friends,
Dear to the entire Congress and compatriots at home and abroad.
Today, I am very pleased to attend the 11th National Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, term 2026 - 2031. This is a socio-political event of great significance, taking place at a time when our country enters a new stage of development, with new positions and forces, new opportunities, and also facing many new and very large requirements and tasks.
On behalf of the Party and State leaders, I warmly welcome the Congress. Through the Congress, I send to all compatriots, comrades, cadres, soldiers nationwide and our compatriots abroad my warmest feelings and best wishes.
Dear Congress,
This Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front takes place in a very special context. The 14th National Congress of the Party has been a great success, defining strategic orientations to bring the country into a new era - an era of development, prosperity, and strength. The election of National Assembly deputies of the 16th term and People's Councils at all levels for the 2026 - 2031 term marked a strong renovation. The political system is operating under a new organizational model, more streamlined, requiring higher efficiency, effectiveness, and service to the people better.
Therefore, the 11th National Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front is a milestone marking the beginning of a new development journey of the Front, with a new position, a new organizational model, and new task requirements. The Congress needs to clearly define what the Vietnam Fatherland Front must do, how to continue to be a place to converge the people's hearts, reflect the people's will, protect the legitimate interests of the people, connect the people's strength, promote the strength of national unity, and contribute to the successful implementation of the country's development goals to 2030 and vision to 2045.
I strongly agree with the theme, direction, goals and action program set out by the Congress. The theme of the Congress clearly shows the spirit of solidarity, democracy, innovation, creativity, and development; affirming the political core role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in promoting democracy, patriotism, the strength of great national unity, building a rich, prosperous, civilized, and happy country.
Dear Congress,
The history of our nation has proven the truth that when our nation is united, people's hearts are united, and the will of the whole people is unified, the country overcomes all difficulties, defeats all enemies, and creates eternal miracles. Great national unity is a precious tradition, a strategic line of the Party, and the source of Vietnamese strength.
From the August Revolution in 1945, through the resistance wars against aggression, national reunification, and national defense, to the renovation, integration and development of today, all victories of our nation originated from the correct leadership of the Party and the invincible strength of the People. Our Party is strong because it is closely linked to the People. Our State is strong because it relies on the People. Our regime is sustainable because it is trusted, supported, protected and built by the People.
In the new era, great national unity is not only a spiritual tradition, but also a capacity for national development; it is the strength to unlock resources, liberate creativity, create social consensus, and protect the Fatherland early and from afar. Unity in the new period is knowing how to respect legitimate and justified differences; harmoniously resolve interests; take the common goals of the nation-nation as a point of similarity; take the aspiration to build a peaceful, independent, democratic, rich, prosperous, civilized, and happy Vietnam as a flag gathering all patriotic Vietnamese people.
In the past time, although the term has been shortened, the Fatherland Front at all levels and member organizations have made great efforts and achieved many important results. Implementing the direction of the Central Government, the Fatherland Front has urgently arranged and consolidated the organization and apparatus, prepared for the 11th Congress thoughtfully and responsibly; and at the same time, gradually operated according to the new model, maintaining operations, ensuring stability and smoothness.
Propaganda, mobilization, and gathering of people have been innovated; contributing to creating social consensus in implementing major guidelines and policies of the Party and State; actively participating in Party building, State building, building and perfecting laws; contributing opinions to the 14th Party Congress Document; participating in amending and supplementing the Constitution and important laws; organizing consultations, introducing candidates, and mobilizing people to participate in elections, contributing to the success of the great festival of the country.
The work of supervising, social criticism, representing, and protecting the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of the people has made changes. Emulation movements and campaigns such as building new rural areas, civilized cities, the Great National Unity Festival in residential areas, the movement "For the Poor - Leaving No One Behind", mobilizing to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses, disaster relief, care for vulnerable people... have vividly shown the tradition of kindness, affection, and solidarity of our nation. The coordination with the Government, levels, and sectors to complete the elimination of more than 334 thousand temporary and dilapidated houses nationwide is a very meaningful milestone; mobilizing to support people affected by natural disasters and storms with an amount of over 4,200 billion VND; mobilizing donations to help the brotherly Cuban people with an amount of 315 billion VND...
On behalf of the Party and State leaders, I acknowledge, warmly congratulate and commend the important results that the Vietnam Fatherland Front at all levels, member organizations, team of cadres working in the Front, union members, association members and people of all strata have achieved in the past time.
Besides the achieved results, the Front's work still has limitations and inadequacies. The content and methods of mobilizing and gathering people at times and in some places have not kept up with the rapid changes in social life. Some campaigns and emulation movements are still formalistic, and the effectiveness is not uniform. The work of supervision and social criticism is still clumsy in some places, and the quality is not high; the monitoring and urging of resolving recommendations after supervision and criticism is sometimes not drastic. Grasping the situation of the People, especially in cyberspace and in social groups, has not kept up with the situation. Digital transformation in the Front's work is not uniform, still formalistic and not really effective.
Those limitations need to be viewed directly, told truthfully, correctly assessed and have fundamental solutions to overcome. The Front cannot be strong if it is far from the people; cannot innovate if it is just text in the resolution; cannot represent the People if it does not hear the people's true voice and says the people do not understand; cannot supervise and criticize with quality if it lacks bravery, lacks data, lacks experts and lacks mechanisms to pursue legitimate recommendations to the end.
Dear Congress,
In the 2026 - 2031 term, on behalf of the Party and State leaders, I would like to emphasize 5 key task groups for delegates attending the Congress to discuss, consider, and decide.
First, thoroughly grasp the viewpoint "The people are the root", the People are the subject, the center of the renovation and development, and the overarching principle in the operation of the Fatherland Front work.
All Party guidelines, policies, laws of the State, all programs, movements, and campaigns of the Front must originate from the needs, aspirations, legitimate rights and interests of the people; towards the goal of improving the material, spiritual and happy lives of the people. The Front must take the People as the center in all activities; rely on the People to build the Party, build the State, build the political system; promote the people's right to mastery; effectively implement the motto "people know, people discuss, people do, people check, people supervise, people enjoy".
The effectiveness of the Fatherland Front work is not only measured by the number of meetings, the number of documents, the number of movements, the number of launching ceremonies, but must be measured by the people's trust, the people's satisfaction, the level of people's participation, the ability to protect the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of the people, and specific results in making people's lives better and better.
The Front must both bring the right policies of the Party and the right policies of the State to the people, and bring the voices, aspirations, initiatives, and legitimate grievances of the people to the Party and the State.
Second, innovate methods of gathering, mobilizing, and promoting the strength of national unity. Our society is changing rapidly; class structure, strata, occupations, working methods, living space, and people's access to information are increasingly diverse. Besides traditional residential areas, there are also industrial parks, worker dormitories, professional communities, business associations, cyberspace, overseas Vietnamese communities and new social groups.
Therefore, the method of mobilizing and gathering the People must also be innovated. It is not possible to only mobilize through conferences, documents, slogans; it is necessary to mobilize through dialogue, persuasion, practical benefits, exemplary behavior, specific results and the ability to solve issues of concern to the People. Each program, movement, and campaign of the Front needs to strongly shift from general launch to specific implementation organization; from slogans to results; from form to substance; ensuring easy to understand, easy to remember, easy to do; clear goals, clear responsibilities, clear deadlines; measuring results, measuring impacts on people's lives.
The Front does not replace the State, does not replace member organizations, and is even more unacceptable to administrativize its activities. The Front must play its core political role: gathering, consulting, coordinating, supervising, criticizing, caring for, protecting and promoting the strength of the People. In the new organizational model, the organization may be more streamlined, but the gathering power must be broader; the apparatus may have fewer levels, but the operation must be closer to the people.
Third, improve the quality of supervision, social criticism, and participation in Party and State building. Supervision and social criticism are very important functions of the Vietnam Fatherland Front; it is a method for the People to participate in Party and State building, control power, prevent and combat corruption, wastefulness, negativity, improve policy quality and consolidate social trust.
Supervision must choose the right issues that people are concerned about, socially pressing, policies that have a great impact on people's lives. Social criticism must be carried out early, remotely, right in the process of formulating guidelines and policies; not only contributing words, but also contributing opinions on policy goals, social impact, feasibility, resources for implementation and the interests of the people.
Social criticism is not to make it difficult for state agencies, but to make policies more correct, closer to the people, more transparent, more feasible, and more humane. To do so, the Front must improve its bravery, quality and methods of supervision and criticism; better mobilize experts, scientists, jurists, intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and reputable people; based on data, social surveys and voices from the grassroots level. In particular, there must be a mechanism to monitor to the end the settlement of recommendations after supervision and criticism; not to let the Front's recommendations only stop at reports, and not to let the legitimate opinions of the people fall into silence.
Fourth, care for the practical interests of the People, consolidate social consensus from the grassroots level. Sustainable great unity must be built on the foundation of the practical interests of the People. When people are cared for, protected, respected, participated in, and enjoyed, then unity has deep roots, consensus has a solid foundation, and trust is sustainable.
The Front needs to continue to innovate activities to care for the poor, vulnerable, people in difficult circumstances, ethnic minorities, religious people, workers, farmers, women, youth, the elderly, children, people with disabilities, and overseas Vietnamese facing difficulties. Social security programs must be public, transparent, targeted, with social supervision; not only stopping at immediate support, but must aim for sustainable livelihoods, skills, jobs, education, healthcare and self-improvement ability.
The Front must promote the self-management role of the residential community; build a united, safe, prosperous, and happy residential area; build self-management models on security and order, environmental protection, encouragement of education, encouragement of talent, care for the elderly, protection of children, and preservation of cultural identity. Social consensus is not formal silence, but must be built on a democratic foundation, listening, dialoguing, harmoniously resolving interests and protecting the legitimate rights of the People.
Fifth, build a modern Front: smooth organization, cadres close to the people, substantive digital transformation, with a long-term vision. After operating the new organizational model, the Vietnam Fatherland Front needs to proactively review, summarize, and evaluate the actual results achieved, the difficulties, obstacles, and bottlenecks in the coordination mechanism, task assignment, organizational structure, and relations between the Front and member organizations; promptly advise and propose to improve the institution, ensuring the Front system operates smoothly, effectively, without overlap, without bureaucratization, and without substitution.
Front work is work with people, with the people's hearts, with social trust. Front officials must have political bravery, have a heart for the people, have prestige in the community, have skills in mobilization, dialogue, persuasion, criticism, and handling situations; must not be far from the people, cannot only work through reports; must go to the point, listen to the end, speak the truth, propose in the right place, and follow the results to the end.
Digital transformation must create new methods for the Front to be closer to the people, listen to the people more widely, respond to the people faster, and supervise the resolution of people's petitions more transparently. It is necessary to effectively operate digital platforms so that the People can reflect, propose, and contribute opinions anytime, anywhere; develop the 24/7 Front Portal, organize "People's Voices Month", and deploy the Provincial-level Social Belief Index.
At the same time, the Front needs to consider theoretical research and practical summarization of great national unity, socialist democracy, and the people's right to mastery as a very important task; advise on building and implementing the Strategy for Great National Unity to 2035, with a vision to 2045; and further clarify the basis, principles, methods and mechanisms for promoting the strength of the people, cultural strength, and human strength of Vietnam.
Dear Congress,
For the Vietnam Fatherland Front to successfully complete its tasks, I propose that Party committees, Party organizations, and authorities at all levels continue to deeply understand the position and role of the Front; truly respect, listen, coordinate and create conditions for the Front to perform well the functions and tasks assigned by the Party, State, and People.
Supervisory opinions, criticisms, and recommendations of the Front must be considered an important channel to improve leadership, management, and administration. Party committees and authorities must be responsible for receiving, explaining, and responding clearly. At the same time, the Front must also improve the quality of recommendations; speak correctly, accurately, with grounds, for the common good, in the spirit of building and monitoring the resolution to the end.
Immediately after the Congress, it is proposed that the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, Fronts at all levels and member organizations urgently concretize the Congress Resolution into a specific action program and plan, with focus, key points, clear people, clear tasks, clear responsibilities, clear deadlines, clear results; how to ensure that the spirit of the Congress is not only in the documents, but goes into each residential area, each member organization, each movement, each practical action for the People.
Dear Congress,
The Vietnam Fatherland Front has a glorious tradition of nearly a century accompanying the nation. I deeply believe that, with that glorious tradition, with the spirit of renovation of the Congress, with the leadership of the Party and State, the consensus and support of all classes of people and our compatriots abroad, the Vietnam Fatherland Front term 2026 - 2031 will continue to have a new step of stronger, more substantive, and more effective development; worthy of being the center of gathering the great national unity bloc, a solid political base of the people's government, a reliable bridge between the Party, the State and the People.
With deep belief in the invincible strength of the People, of the great national unity bloc, I call on all compatriots, comrades, soldiers nationwide, and our compatriots abroad to continue to unite as one, join forces, and promote patriotism, self-reliance, self-strengthening spirit, aspiration to contribute, and strive to successfully implement the Resolution of the 14th Party Congress and the Resolution of the 11th National Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front; contributing to building a peaceful, independent, democratic, prosperous, civilized, and happy Vietnam, firmly moving towards socialism.
Beloved President Ho Chi Minh advised: "In the sky, nothing is more precious than the people. In the world, nothing is stronger than the people's unity force". Let's always remember that teaching. Let's make unity a strength. Let's make democracy a driving force. Let's make the people's belief a solid foundation of the country.
Wishing distinguished delegates, elders, dignitaries and comrades, international friends good health, happiness, and success.
Wishing the Congress a great success. Thank you very much.
General Secretary, President To Lam
