Answering an interview before 2026, General Secretary To Lam talked a lot about preventing and combating corruption, wastefulness, and negativity; about the 14th Congress; about solidarity - discipline - breakthrough; about development for people and with knowledge. If viewed from an economic perspective, that message has a very clear "undercurrent": Integrity is not a moral slogan, but a fundamental condition of growth.
2026 is again a special year marking the beginning of the 14th National Congress term, marking the beginning of a new cycle of action, and at the same time posing higher requirements for national governance in the context of rapid and unpredictable world changes. When the external environment is volatile, the most precious thing about an economy is not only capital, technology or the market, but also "trust" - the trust of people, businesses, and investors in a transparent, disciplined, and fair governance.
Market leverage, not the "costs" of development
In the message, the General Secretary emphasized a truth that needs to be put in the right place to clean up the apparatus without hindering development, but to develop healthier and more sustainably. This is a very "economic" view. Because corruption, wastefulness, and negativity not only cause money losses. It increases transaction costs, creates more procedures, prolongs time, and erodes the motivation for innovation. For businesses, it is "underground tax" that makes capital costs higher, risks greater, and competition more distorted. For people, it is the worry that "a task that should have been simple becomes complicated". For the economy, it is the depletion of the efficiency of each social capital.
Conversely, integrity creates an environment where the right person has a foothold, and the upright person has a foothold. When the market operates according to clear rules, businesses dare to invest long-term, dare to upgrade technology, dare to pay good salaries to keep good human resources. When people believe that: "The effort put in will be recognized", consumption and the spirit of entrepreneurship will be stronger. In other words, integrity is a form of "soft infrastructure" - not seen with concrete, but determines the speed and quality of growth.
Fighting wastefulness: "Growth mine" not yet fully exploited
A noteworthy highlight in the New Year's message is the expansion of the focus: From fighting corruption to fighting wastefulness - because wastefulness "sometimes is not noisy, but the consequences are very large". This is a very accurate warning to the "dead seat" of many developing economies: No shortage of ideas, no shortage of projects, but lack of discipline in implementation and a mechanism of responsibility to the end.
Wastefulness in public investment, land, public assets, slow-progress projects... not only depletes money but also ruins opportunities. And opportunities in development sometimes only come within a very narrow time frame. A project extended for another year may mean a missed investment cycle, a stream of supporting businesses does not form, and a local job market does not "open" at the right time.
The message clearly states the requirement to thoroughly review and handle ineffective prolonged projects; rectify financial and budget discipline; improve the quality of public governance so that "every penny, every inch of land, every public asset" serves development and serves the people. If it can be done, this is a major "growth mine" that grows by improving the efficiency of resource use, not just by "pumping more capital".
From "counter" to "room": modern management thinking
The New Year message uses a very real but very standard image of governance: There needs to be "vaccines", "antibiotics", "preventive medicine" to promptly prevent corruption, wastefulness, and negativity. That is the thinking of shifting from handling cases to building systems. In economics, handling violations is like fighting a fire: Necessary, but always costly and often "consequences have occurred". Prevention is to build a system of laws, procedures, data, transparency, and control of power so that bad things cannot and dare not arise. This is of particular significance in the period 2026-2030, when Vietnam needs to promote stronger institutional reform, deeper decentralization - delegation of power.
The General Secretary emphasized that delegation of power must be linked to binding responsibilities, decentralization must go hand in hand with controlling power; not to let "empty space" become "dark space". Speaking in economic language, expanding local and unit-level proactive rights is necessary to accelerate, but if there is a lack of control and transparency mechanisms, the risk of loss and waste will expand and growth will be "unqualified".
Protecting people who dare to do: paving the way for breakthrough
At the beginning of the year, when talking about integrity, many people often think of "tightening" and "punishing". But this message clearly balances and handles strictly, but there must be a mechanism to protect people who dare to think, dare to do, innovate for the common good. This is an extremely important point for the economy. Because an administration fears responsibility will cause the economy to slow down exponentially. When "collision is feared everywhere", people will choose the safest option, not deciding, not signing, not daring to try new things. And so the opportunity passes.
To create breakthroughs, it is necessary to be both disciplined and encouraged. Discipline to stop the wrong; encourage the right to spread. Creating a "backbone" for those who do the right thing is also creating a "iceberg" for growth based on innovation.
XIV Congress: Discipline to go far, breakthrough to go fast
In the part about the 14th Congress, the General Secretary stated the action motto "Unity - Democracy - Discipline - Breakthrough - Development". If interpreted according to the spirit of economic solidarity and trust, it is a condition for society to operate smoothly; discipline is the foundation of good governance; breakthrough is a way to remove "blockages"; development is the ultimate goal measured by people's lives. In particular, the message emphasizes development for people and by knowledge - measured by jobs, income, housing, education, health care, social security for the elderly, support for disadvantaged areas. That is the most accurate "measure" of growth, does growth make life better? To truly "go better", the driving force for growth cannot only rely on capital expansion and exploitation of resources in the old way. Therefore, placing science - technology, innovation, and digital transformation as key driving forces; and at the same time promoting all social resources, in which the private economy is an important driving force... is a choice.
Spring of faith: each person is "a little better
There is a passage in the message that makes readers see "Tet" very close, the General Secretary hopes that each family will be at peace, each person will enter the new year with the simple thing of "doing their job better" and when millions of "better" things are combined, the country will strengthen sustainably. That is not just a wish. That is the philosophy of development based on productivity, discipline and sense of responsibility.
The economy in 2026 wants to break through, it cannot just rely on a few large projects or a few policy boosts. It needs millions of "small improvements": Businesses manage better, workers improve skills, public authorities serve faster, procedures are more transparent, budgets are more disciplined, projects are on schedule. And so that those "small improvements" are not eliminated by invisible barriers, the underlying conditions are still integrity and discipline. When trust is strengthened, social costs are reduced, investment motivation increases, creativity has a place to live, then the momentum of the economy will come naturally - without slogans, without bargaining.
The New Year's message, therefore, can be summarized in a very concise, honest meaning that is the shortest path to sustainable prosperity. And that is also the spirit of spring 2026: A spring of action, of responsibility, of "better things" every day - for the country to enter a new era of development with intelligence, bravery and firm belief.
