In 2026, the National Cultural Conference will be held after the National Cultural Conference in 2021, to assess the implementation of guidelines, policies, resolutions, directives, and conclusions of the Party on culture; the results of building culture and Vietnamese people of the period; solutions for building and developing culture to meet the requirements of the new era.
This is a noteworthy sign, because after many decades without a fixed organization schedule, the National Cultural Conference will now become a regularly maintained institution, accompanying the country's development cycle.
In reality, "culture illuminates the way for the nation to go", which is always affirmed as the spiritual foundation of society, lacks a national-level forum that is periodic to review the past journey and identify priorities for the next stage. The gap of more than 70 years, from the National Cultural Conference in 1948 to the most recent conference in 2021, shows that.
Another issue is that today, with the development of artificial intelligence, social networks, digital economy, creative industries, global cultural exchange or changes in the lifestyle of young people, new questions are being raised for cultural management and development.
Culture does not stand still but always moves with social life, so management thinking and development solutions also need to be updated promptly and regularly, and cannot wait for decades to have the opportunity to sit down and summarize.
Therefore, it is reasonable for the National Cultural Conference to be held periodically every 5 years as set out in the Plan to organize "Vietnamese Culture Day" for the period 2026 - 2030.
This is also a long enough period to assess the effectiveness of policies, but also close enough to promptly adjust before inadequacies become obstacles.
Five years is a reasonable time to look back at a stage of cultural development. But of course, the value of the National Cultural Conference will not be about organizing it again as scheduled.
The greatest value and expectation of the 5-year term is the real changes after each meeting, from improved policies, untied bottlenecks and cultural values spreading more strongly in life.
In addition to summarizing what has been done, each National Cultural Conference is also an opportunity to identify new issues, new challenges and gaps in development policies.
Only then will each National Cultural Conference truly become a milestone to adjust development thinking, update policies and create new motivation for culture to truly accompany the country's development.
