The article "Ho Chi Minh's Light illuminates the way for us to go" by General Secretary and President To Lam on the occasion of the 136th anniversary of Uncle Ho's birthday has suggested a meaningful strategic orientation message for the new development path of the country.
After 40 years of Doi Moi, the country has entered a different development stage than before. If the first stage is to liberate production capacity, open up and integrate, the current stage is competition in terms of growth quality, technology, data, management capacity and strategic autonomy. The world is changing rapidly, geopolitical hotspots continue to impact trade, energy and global supply chains.
In the article "Ho Chi Minh's Light illuminates the way for us to go", General Secretary and President To Lam emphasized the requirement of "innovation but not deviation; rapid development but must be sustainable; deep integration but must maintain independence and self-reliance". That spirit clearly shows the requirement of self-reliance and self-strengthening in the new development conditions.
Never before has the issue of mastering science and technology been so strategic as it is today. A nation that does not master technology will find it difficult to master its own future development.
The current global competition is no longer mainly competition for resources or cheap labor, but competition in AI, semiconductors, data security, green technology and innovation capacity.
Therefore, Vietnam promoting the national semiconductor industry strategy, developing digital infrastructure, data centers, high-quality human resources and innovation ecosystems is not only an economic requirement, but also an requirement to maintain independence and self-reliance in the technology era.
In 2025, Vietnam's GDP increased by about 8.02%, the scale of the economy exceeded 514 billion USD; total import and export turnover was more than 930 billion USD. These figures show the country's great development potential and room. But at the same time, it also poses the requirement to improve national technological capacity, labor productivity and growth quality if it does not want to continue to stand at a low position in the global value chain.
The spirit of "bringing our strength and liberating ourselves" that President Ho Chi Minh called for 81 years ago, today needs to be understood more broadly. That is to master our own development capacity, build a high-quality human resource team, have strong technology enterprises, combine national strength with the strength of the times to not fall behind.
Along with that is the requirement to build an incorruptible, effective, and responsible governance. This is also a very noteworthy point in the article of General Secretary and President To Lam when placing the fight against corruption, wastefulness, negativity, and bureaucracy in direct relationship with national development.
In an era of global competition, "internal invaders" not only degrade the apparatus, but also lose national development opportunities. A project delayed for many years, a resource lost, an official evading responsibility, or a stagnant institution can all cause the country to slow down in the development race. Therefore, integrity today is not only a moral quality, but also a national competitiveness.
But after all, the biggest thing that Ho Chi Minh's ideology left behind is still the ideology of development for people. Technology cannot replace human values. Economic growth is also not the ultimate goal of development. A powerful country must be a place where people live safely, decently, have the opportunity to develop and enjoy the fruits of development fairly.
Commemorating Uncle Ho's birthday is therefore not only to commemorate his immense merits. More importantly, it is to shift from awareness to action. Learning and following Uncle Ho cannot just stop at slogans, but must be with specific action capacity: Dare to innovate, dare to take responsibility, dare to serve and put national - ethnic interests first and take the efficiency of serving the people as a measure.
The larger the turning point of history, the more we must maintain the Ho Chi Minh light. It is not only the light of faith, but also the light of bravery, wisdom and development direction for Vietnam to enter a new era of development with a strong aspiration.
