A 10-day Party conference, which opened in Hanoi on September 30, is examining the implementation of three strategic tasks closely linked with economic restructuring and growth model renewal. The Party has identified three ‘strategic breakthroughs’ for Vietnam, including finalising the socialist-oriented market economy institution, rapidly developing human resources, and building a synchronous infrastructure system. This Party Central Committee conference is of great importance as it reviews the implementation of socio-economic development tasks for 2013 to set targets for 2014, said Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. He asked Party members to make an in-depth analysis of the national economy’s advantages and disadvantages, including macroeconomic stabilisation, high risks of inflation, the liquidity and safety of commercial banks, bad debt settlement, cross ownership of banks, the sluggish real estate market, and efforts to improve the business environment and ease business difficulties. In the face of the 2008 global financial and economic turmoil, Vietnam has shifted its focus from rapid development to reining in inflation, stabilising the macro-economy, maintaining reasonable growth, and ensuring social security, considering them priority areas. To this end, it is implementing three ‘strategic tasks’ along with renewing the growth model and restructuring the economy, aiming to achieve steady growth. Trong asked Party members to draw lessons from carrying out Party resolutions during the past three years, especially in leadership, management, and performance, to make progress in the remaining two years of the current Party tenure. The Party conference will issue a resolution on education reform, emphasising the need to comprehensively reforming education-training to meet the country’s new development requirements. It will also examine amendments to the 1992 Constitution, a national defence strategy in the new era, and Party building work. VOV