The future for the next generation

In every revolutionary period since the Party's leadership, youth has always been a pioneer force, playing a core role, from fighting for independence, national reunification to innovation and socio-economic development. It can be said that the history of our Party since its inception has always left its mark, clearly demonstrating the role of the outstanding and excellent generations of young people of the nation. The first General Secretary, talented leaders of the Party, and great intellectuals of Vietnam have all held important positions since their youth.

In the new period, the role of the youth force becomes even more important. Youth is a pillar to bring the country firmly into the new era, a key resource to build and develop new productive forces, and at the same time, a pioneer in participating in new fields. Youth are the future owners of the country, an important factor in building a national value system, a cultural value system, a family value system and Vietnamese human standards.

Achievements and challenges

The maturity, sustainability, and even the fate of the country depends heavily on the youth force and the younger generation. In the national's divine resistance wars against the empire, foreign invaders to gain independence, freedom, and protect the sovereignty and sacred territory of the Fatherland, millions of young people have offered their youth "determined to die for the Fatherland". The history of the nation will forever record the generation of young people who went to battle "while their hearts were opened to the future" with the spirit of "more than the Truong Son range", "If the army is not over, we will not return". In the fight, in building and defending the country, we always see the image of "Three-way ready Youth", " Three-way ready Women", "The year of volunteering", "Where there is need for youth, where there is no need for youth", "Youth at the forefront of industrialization and modernization of the country" and "Vietnamese youth - dare to think, dare to do, dare to take responsibility" ... In recent years, the young generation of Vietnam has achieved many important achievements in the fields of education, sports and culture, contributing to affirming the country's position in the international arena. Vietnamese youth have continuously won prestigious awards in international competitions in math, physics, chemistry, IT, scientific and technical innovation, art, etc. These successes demonstrate the intelligence and strong competitiveness of Vietnamese youth in the globalization environment. In the field of sports, young people have also continuously made proud milestones in regional and world tournaments, clearly demonstrating their physical strength and resilient competitive spirit.

In terms of culture, the younger generation has played an important role in preserving, conserving and promoting national cultural identity. In the context of international integration, many traditional cultural values of Vietnam have been widely promoted around the world through the continuous efforts of young people in international cultural exchange activities, diverse and creative cultural and artistic programs.

However, besides those achievements, we are also facing many major challenges. The quality of Vietnam's human resources, although improved, is still quite far from developed countries, especially in terms of creativity, labor productivity, practical skills and foreign language proficiency. Currently, Vietnam is in the group of 34 largest economies in the world, however, our labor productivity is still ranked 117/181 countries/ territories according to statistics, equivalent to only 11.4% compared to Singapore, equal to 35.4% of Malaysia, not to mention other developed countries.

In recent years, along with the development of the economy, Vietnam has achieved many significant achievements in improving the quality of life, education and health care for the people. However, when considering the physical strength, overall health and average height of young people, there is still a clear gap compared to countries in the region and developed countries in the world. The average height of men in Vietnam in the most recent survey in 2020 was 168.1cm, women were 156.2cm, lower than in countries in the region such as Thailand, South Korea and Japan. The current life expectancy of Vietnamese people is 74.5 years, 5-10 years lower than that of Japan, Korea, and Germany. The rate of undernourishment in Vietnam (19.6%) is also much higher than in developed countries such as Japan or Singapore, showing that nutritional problems from a young age still affect the physical health of young people in the long term. In high-performance sports competitions, Vietnam can achieve good results in sports that require skills but it is difficult to compete in sports that require strength and endurance.

Another challenge is that Vietnam is currently entering the final stages of the golden population period while the phenomenon of population aging is happening at a very rapid pace. In 2011, the proportion of people aged 60 and over accounted for over 10% of the total population, by 2022, this proportion had increased to about 12.8%, equivalent to about 12.5 million elderly people. It is expected that by 2036, the proportion of elderly people will reach 20%, which means that Vietnam will enter the stage of an aging population. As the population ages, the proportion of workers decreases, the number of dependents increases, leading to an increasingly high financial burden for the working-age population. The health system and care will also be under increasing pressure as the demand for elderly care increases. This is a big challenge for planning a sustainable development strategy to effectively utilize young human resources before entering the aging population stage.

In the context of increasingly strong globalization, the cultural identity of the Vietnamese people faces a significant risk of extinction. The phenomenon of cultural exchange and integration on a global scale brings many economic and social benefits but also creates great challenges in preserving and promoting traditional cultural values. Foreign cultural trends, if not accepted proactively and selectively, can overshadow and even erode the inherent beauty of national culture. One of the most obvious manifestations of this problem is the change in lifestyle and thinking of young people. Many young people today easily receive new, modern values from the outside without paying much attention to the traditional values of the nation. The popularity of international media, social networks and entertainment has caused many young people to increasingly distance themselves from the typical cultural values of the nation, such as traditional arts, folk festivals, traditional cuisine, and even the moral values and the spirit of community solidarity, which are the unique beauty of the Vietnamese people. Social evils and the rate of crime among young people are becoming increasingly complicated and are seeping into the lives of a large number of young people, weakening the nation's race.

In a world of change

The world is entering a period of unprecedented breakthrough development in technology and science and technology. The rapid and strong development of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, big data and automation is shaping the way we work, live and communicate globally. This requires each country, including Vietnam, to carefully prepare a young generation that meets strict human resource standards for integration and sustainable development.

Intellectually, the young generation of Vietnam today needs more than ever to be creative, critical thinking and the ability to quickly handle technological changes. Young people must be trained to become pioneers in mastering new technologies, having enough capacity to research, develop and apply the most advanced achievements in practice. At the same time, the younger generation needs to have a global mindset, international communication skills and outstanding foreign language skills to proactively integrate into the international environment, competing fairly and effectively with world friends.

However, intelligence alone is not enough. Healthy physical condition and strong courage are also indispensable conditions for the younger generation to adapt and develop in an increasingly fierce global competitive environment. A generation of young people with physical health will ensure high-quality labor resources, contributing to the cause of building and defending the country. Therefore, physical education needs to be focused on more, combined with building a community health system and modern sports facilities to improve overall health and enhance the stature of Vietnamese people.

In the process of extensive international integration, the younger generation also needs to be educated and fostered to always preserve and promote national cultural identity. Culture plays an important spiritual foundation in the comprehensive development of Vietnamese youth. Culture not only helps shape national identity but is also an important soft power, helping Vietnam affirm its position and image in the international arena. At the same time, good moral qualities, a deep sense of humanity and a high sense of social responsibility must be nurtured regularly, in order to build a young generation with enough capacity and personality to actively contribute to the common development of society and the world.

In reality, developed countries, world powers and the region all prioritize comprehensive education development, physical enhancement and preservation, and promotion of ethnic culture to create high-quality human resources, meeting the requirements of sustainable development. We need to learn and flexibly apply these international lessons to build an excellent generation of young people, ensuring the country is firmly developing in the new era.

Before the country's new luck

After 80 years of founding the country and 50 years of complete national reunification and nearly 40 years of implementing the renovation process, our country is entering a period of breakthrough in development, opening up opportunities but at the same time facing unprecedented challenges. The country is increasingly deeply integrated into the global economy, facing strong changes from breakthroughs in science and technology and global fluctuations.

Towards 2045, the important milestone of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the country, we set a strategic goal of becoming a developed country with high income. To achieve that, Vietnam needs to have a young generation that is not only excellent in intelligence but also superior in physical strength, rich in cultural identity, capable of competing and standing shoulder to shoulder with the world powers, affirming the country's position in the international arena.

The consistent viewpoint of our Party and State is to take people as the foundation for sustainable development, because people are both the ultimate goal and the main driving force for social development. And, socio-economic development must aim to satisfy the increasingly high spiritual and material needs of the people. Human development becomes a key and strategic issue that determines the success of the country. Therefore, youth work is a vital issue for the nation, one of the decisive factors for the success or failure of the revolution, an important task of the entire political system and the whole society. Investing and developing the younger generation has become a top strategic priority in the new period. Building and nurturing a strong, intellectual and civilized generation of youth is a solid foundation for Vietnam to continuously rise up, becoming a developed country, a symbol of aspiration, strength and national will.

New human development orientation towards 2045

The period from 2025 to 2045 is only exactly 20 years away. The children born during this period will be the young generation of the new generation, the future owners of a thrivingly developing Vietnam. Towards 2045 with the vision of a comprehensive Vietnam, the orientation of human development, especially the younger generation, becomes a strategic priority. First of all, it is necessary to invest heavily in education and training to develop intelligence and knowledge. The education system must be extensively innovated, focusing on developing creative skills, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), foreign languages, digital skills and modern technology. Intellectual education needs to go hand in hand with cultural, ethical and aesthetic education to form a comprehensive individual. At the same time, promoting the spirit of self-study, lifelong learning, and building a comprehensive learning society is also a key task. To build an elite force, we also need to have special policies to attract young talents to return from abroad, building a team of human resources capable of global competition.

Along with intellectual education is a strategy to improve the health and physical fitness of Vietnamese people. It is necessary to encourage the development of school sports in a systematic and effective manner to enhance the stature of Vietnamese people. We need to set a specific goal by 2045 that the average height of Vietnamese youth must reach a certain level on par with developed countries in the region. To realize this goal, promoting public health care and building modern sports infrastructure becomes an urgent requirement. We also need to aim to increase the number of high-performance athletes, aiming to win medals at major tournaments such as the ASIAD and the Olympics, not only in skills- requiring sports but also in sports that require superior physical strength and stamina.

Culture is an indispensable factor in the human development strategy. We need to continue to invest in preserving and promoting the value of cultural and artistic heritages, while innovating and modernizing to suit the times. The goal is to build Vietnamese people rich in national identity: patriotism, humanity, creativity, and integration without disolution. Promoting the cultural industry, making culture an economic driving force and a national soft power also need to be focused on.

In the population development strategy, we need to maintain a reasonable population structure, effectively taking advantage of the current golden population period before entering the aging population period. Population quality needs to be improved through comprehensive health, nutrition and education programs. Policies to support young families, encourage replacement fertility and comprehensive health care for children need to be implemented synchronously.

The cultivation of moral qualities, ideals and the desire to contribute among young people becomes especially important. We need to create an environment for young people to actively participate in the fields of digital transformation, green economy and national cultural projects, while encouraging young people to integrate widely internationally. Thereby, young people not only receive the quintessence of the world but also spread the unique cultural values of Vietnam to the international community.

To realize these major goals, the Party and State will invest strongly and comprehensively in resources to create the best conditions for the development of the young generation, especially the "Generation of Rising". Education, training, sports, culture and population policy will be the top priority focuses in the national strategy. Each policy and action program aims to improve the quality of life and international competitiveness of the young generation of Vietnam. The Party and State will continue to build and implement mechanisms and policies to create an environment and favorable conditions for young people to develop healthily, comprehensively, harmoniously in virtue - intelligence - body - beauty.

It is necessary to research and develop specific and appropriate policy groups to promote the pioneering role of young people in production and labor, participate in the 4.0 industrial revolution, take the lead in research and application of technology, national digital transformation, startups, innovation; actively participate in implementing socio-economic development projects and works, ensuring national defense - security and international integration.

At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen solutions to build high-quality young human resources; review, amend and supplement key national policies for young talents; have breakthrough policies on learning, career orientation, vocational training, employment, housing, cultural and sports institutions for adolescents. It is necessary to identify specific solutions to prevent, combat and reduce the rate of crime among young people; synchronously deploy the youth statistics index; build a set of criteria for the development of Vietnamese youth at the provincial level.

The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union needs to continue to innovate and improve quality, efficiency, content and methods of operation in the direction of linking with the development goals of the locality and the country, improving the material and spiritual life of the people; attaching importance to depth, practical effectiveness, ensuring deep and wide access to all classes of young people. The Youth Union needs to promote the spirit of dedication and the shock role of young people in socio-economic development, ensuring national defense and security, international integration; developing science and technology, innovative startups, digital transformation; protecting the Party's ideological foundation, fighting against erroneous and hostile viewpoints; participating in preventing, combating and reducing the rate of crimes among young people.

In addition to support from the Party and the State and socio-political organizations, companionship and cooperation from families, schools and the business community are key and indispensable factors in the development journey of young people. The family plays a fundamental role, the school is a place to practice intelligence and personality, while organizations and businesses will be an ideal environment for young people to demonstrate their creativity, practice skills and accumulate practical experience.

Above all, it is the youth who are the force that determines the success of these goals and visions. Every young Vietnamese person needs to proactively study, practice and constantly strive to assert themselves. The younger generation needs to confidently step out into the world, carrying in-depth knowledge, healthy physical health and a soul rich in Vietnamese cultural identity, and at the same time having to train themselves to become global citizens with Vietnamese soul, contributing to building and defending the Fatherland.

With that vision, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the country will be an important milestone that our country is moving towards with pride and hope. On the next 20-year journey towards that milestone, we share a common aspiration: to build a generation of Vietnamese youth who are brave, progressive, excellent in intelligence, superior in physical strength and imbued with cultural identity, confident enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with international friends, contributing to the country's rise to strength and development.