18 February 2021
‘
Di bat bien, ung van bien’ a phrase evoked by Ho Chi Minh in 1946 is the Vietnamese rendering of a Chinese maxim which may be translated ‘to respond to the changing with the unchanging’. This could sum up the essential lesson to be drawn from the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) held from 25 January to 1 February this year.
The Congress began with an upbeat tone. Vietnam has been lauded by the international community for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a population of 97 million people, Vietnam has only recorded 35 deaths. It seems to have done all the right things closing borders early, heavily controlling locally targeted confinements and maintaining transparency in its communication strategy to encourage patriotic behaviour to combat the virus. While the rest of Southeast Asia is in recession, Vietnam recorded a growth rate of 2.9 per cent in 2020.