Distorted arguments cause suspicion in society
On May 4, 2025, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW on private economic development. The Resolution affirms that the private economy is one of the important drivers of the national economy, and at the same time emphasizes the requirement to create a favorable institutional environment for this sector to develop healthily and effectively, associated with the goal of rapid and sustainable development of the country.
However, over the past time, Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW has become the target of attacks by hostile forces and political opportunists. Taking advantage of the digital media environment and cyberspace, many reactionary news sites and opposition accounts continuously post false information, distorting the content and objectives of the resolution.
These arguments often deliberately equate the development of the private economy with the "privatization" of the economy, thereby implying that the Party is abandoning its socialist goals or reducing the role of the State economy. The deep-seated goal of these distortions is to create suspicion in society, erode the trust of cadres, party members and people in the Party's economic development guidelines, and move towards denying the Party's leadership role and the path to socialism in Vietnam.
One of the common tricks is distorting the nature and objectives of the resolution. Some wrong views deliberately interpret the identification of the private economy as an important driving force of the economy as acknowledging the exploitative nature of capitalism or as a step leading to economic capitalization. From that one-sided argument, they conclude that the Party is changing the nature of the regime and abandoning its socialist orientation.
In fact, this interpretation deliberately ignores the core characteristics of the socialist-oriented market economy model in Vietnam, where the State plays a management and macro-regulatory role and the Party plays a comprehensive leadership role in the development of economic sectors.
The right policy stems from both theoretical and practical basis
A misconception is that developing the private economy is abandoning Marxism-Leninism. However, Marxism-Leninism affirms that in the transitional period there may exist many forms of ownership and different economic components. The development of the private economy within the framework of the law, under the management of the State and the orientation of the Party, is a creative application of that principle in Vietnam.
In the socialist-oriented market economy model in our country, the State economy playing a leading role does not mean covering or replacing other economic sectors. The leading role of the State economy first of all manifests in keeping key areas, creating important material tools for the State to perform the function of orienting and macro-regulating the economy.
Meanwhile, the private economy is identified as an important driving force of the national economy, reflected in the ability to flexibly mobilize social resources, promote innovation, improve labor productivity and create jobs for workers. Between the state economy and the private economy, there exists a complementary relationship, supporting and promoting each other within the framework of a socialist-oriented market economy. Under the leadership of the Party and the management of the socialist rule-of-law State, economic sectors develop together in accordance with the law, healthy competition and equal cooperation, thereby maximizing all resources for national development.
The reality of nearly 4 decades of renovation has clearly demonstrated the increasingly important role of the private economic sector in the Vietnamese economy. This sector currently has more than 940,000 businesses and more than 5 million operating business households, contributing about half of GDP, more than 30% of total state budget revenue and using about 82% of the total labor force in the economy. Not only contributing economically, the private economic sector also plays an important role in solving employment, reducing poverty and ensuring social security.
It can be affirmed that Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW is not only a simple economic policy decision, but also a new step in the Party's theoretical thinking on the path of national development in the transitional period to socialism. Therefore, identifying and fighting against these wrong views is of great significance in protecting the Party's ideological foundation, while consolidating social consensus on the country's economic development policies.
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(*) People's Security Academy (**) Academy of Policy and Development
