Focusing on creative innovation, making the most of cultural resources and shaping the cultural ecosystem

In the flow of Vietnamese culture following 35 years of renewal process, the awareness of culture, society and people have been more comprehensive and profound. Ideology, ethics and lifestyle, which are the key areas of culture, have seen positive changes. The system of laws and policies on culture has been perfected, creating favourable conditions for people to actively participate in creative activities and enjoy culture. The preservation and promotion of cultural heritages have received great attention. In addition, international exchange and cooperation activities and the promotion of the image of the land, people and culture of Vietnam to the world have been strengthened. Culture has made positive and important contributions to the cause of building and defending the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism proposed the Party and State to pay much attention to and support the sector in carrying out the following issues:

Firstly, it is essential to continue to deeply study and raise profound awareness of culture in the spirit of the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress, Resolution No.33-NQ/TW dated June 9, 2014, and Conclusion No. 76-KL/TW dated June 4, 2020, among state management agencies. The consultation function of the cultural sector should be performed successfully such that culture is placed on par with economics and politics. Culture is both the pillar and foundation for social development as well as the goal and driving force for the country's sustainable development. We need to have “the right awareness to act well”.

Secondly, the cultural sector identified the consultation and proposals related to the development and completion of institutions, mechanisms and policies for the development of culture, sports and tourism as a priority and breakthrough task in the State management of the ministry on the basis of the practice. The ministry will focus on advising and proposing the development of the laws and decrees on culture during the 2021-2025 period and until 2030.

Thirdly, the sector focuses on shaping the cultural ecosystem and building a healthy cultural environment to ensure all members of the community can develop their creative abilities.

Fourthly, the cause of building Vietnamese people with comprehensive development will be boosted. Human perfection needs and can only be realised in culture and by culture. Therefore, it is essential to identify and practice the Vietnamese human value system with qualities suitable to the requirements of the new era, such as patriotism, compassion, gratitude, honesty, solidarity, industriousness, creativity and integration. The people must also love labour, be rich in kindness and respect justice, as late General Secretary Le Duan repeatedly affirmed. It is also important to build and develop the lifestyle of “All for one and one for all” because the measure of cultural development is human development.

Fifthly, cultural industries should be developed with a focus on promoting the soft power of Vietnamese culture, based on creativity, science and technology and intellectual copyright. The cultural sector strives to achieve the goal of cultural industry revenue contributing 7 percent of the GDP by 2030. Cultural development should be associated with tourism development, turning tourism into a spearhead economic sector while protecting and preserving cultural resources for future generations.

Sixthly, relevant agencies will pay attention and spend adequate resources for the investment into culture. Culture plays the role of social regulation in the value system and cultural standards of the community. Culture also directs social development thanks to its humane purpose. Therefore, the investment for culture is a long-term direction towards a better future. The Party and State should pay great attention, support and develop a national target programme on cultural development.

“Culture lights the way for national advancement”

Culture is the endogenous strength, the spiritual foundation of society, the goal and also the driving force to promote the development of the country. Culture in history has contributed to shaping the personality of each person, and above all, building the national identity. At present, culture is one of the factors that create the strength of a country in the international arena. Therefore, President Ho Chi Minh made “Culture lights the way for national advancement” at the first National Cultural Conference in November 1946, as a way of affirming the importance of culture in the construction and develop the country, as well as promoting the national identity and human values of Vietnam.

In the current time, when the whole country needs to join hands to share difficulties, overcome challenges together and realise the goals set out by the 13th National Party Congress, especially in the cultural and human development, culture is a greater spiritual strength than ever. “The Party and State more than ever, are paying special attention to promoting cultural development and creating conditions for the non-stop creativity of each artist, so that they can create new cultural and artistic works, which meet people's expectations, both ideologically and artistically”.

The Party Central Committee issued three important resolutions to promote the development of the country's culture, such as the Resolution of the 5th plenum of the 8th Central Committee in 1998 on the development of a progressive Vietnamese culture richly imbued with the national identity; Resolution 33-NQ/TW dated June 9, 2014, on the building and development of the Vietnamese culture and people, to meet the need of sustainable national development and Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW dated December 1, 2011, on enhancing the Party leadership to develop sports up to 2020.

Culture has now become a national strength. In the context of international economic integration, all countries not only focus on developing political and economic resources, natural resources, security and defence but also focus on promoting culture. Acting as a “soft power”, culture also contributes to strengthening the image, position and voice of each country on the world map.

Cultural industry - a breakthrough in cultural development

Exploiting the economic value of culture so that culture becomes a resource for the country's development is the Party's policy throughout many congresses. In particular, the documents of the 13th National Party Congress emphasised: “Expeditiously deploy the focused development of the cultural industry and cultural services based on identifying and promoting the “soft power” of Vietnamese culture, effectively applying new values, quintessence and achievements of the world’s culture, science and technology”. The development of cultural industries is considered a breakthrough in the development of Vietnamese culture and people, helping us to promote cultural values and the Vietnamese people’s strength, to realise the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy Vietnam, to make culture truly the spiritual foundation, to “light the way for national advancement” in the current renovation cause.

Since the early 2000s, attaching importance to the creative factor, which is the biggest resource for the development of the country, has been a big trend in the world. Creative economic sectors and cultural industries have become the driving force for world economic development. Culture has thus received more attention when it is the stimulus for the formation and creation of values for creativity. The cultural industries have become one of the sectors with the highest economic growth in developed countries such as the US, UK, France, Japan and the Republic of Korea. Cultural industries include fields of creative talent use, cultural potential, technology and entrepreneurial skills, to create cultural products and services. Considering these four factors, Vietnam has advantages in the first two factors.

As for cultural potential, Vietnam is proud to be a land with rich tradition and cultural diversity. Fifty-four ethnic groups with thousands of years of history create a priceless treasure of relics, rituals, festivals, folk games, traditional crafts, folk songs, folk dances, food and customs, legends, and heroic images.

For the “take-off” wish to come true, Vietnam still has a lot of work to do, including policies to attract investment in the cultural industries. The first policy should come from mobilising the participation of the whole society, especially businesses, in the development of cultural industries. Public-private partnership is one form that should be deployed more widely to promote this participation. As an example, in Vietnamese cinema over recent years, despite the difficulties of state-owned feature film studios, there is still some prosperity from the contributions of private studios. Besides, it is important to create policies to attract investment that we need to consider investment in culture as an investment in development but even bringing several economic benefits for the country. Only from such awareness can we form appropriate investment attraction policies.

The dynamics and endogenous strengths of culture needed to arouse the development of the country

It is necessary to understand that the intrinsic motivation and strength of culture are not obtained by accident or day by day, but that motivation and strength must be educated and nurtured.

First of all, to create a society with a humane, healthy and progressive cultural environment, everything in that environment must be clear and transparent. In that society, honesty, compassion and good direction must be upheld. Protecting and promoting the traditional culture of the nation, which has been built for thousands of generations with the blood, bones, sweat, and tears of our forefathers. That culture must start from the first cradle, which is the family with good traditions of a Vietnamese family, and then the community and society. Those are cultural dynamics that lift people to challenges and difficulties. Culture is human. Everything is created and comes from people, so people need to be valued and put first.

Culture and people - the factors that ensure the sustainable development of Vietnam

The traditional culture of Vietnam is often identified as an agricultural economy, rural residents and society, but over time it has developed and changed. Along with that, the river environment has created a river civilization with the inhabitants living on it with a very flexible style, good at responding to all situations. Besides the advantages, Vietnam's nature poses challenges for humans such as floods, storms, and epidemics. It is the struggle with nature that has created the tradition of not faltering in the face of difficulties and knowing how to connect with the community, creating the strength to overcome all challenges.

One of the things that determine success in the development of the country towards prosperity is to arouse the aspirations of the nation, especially the young, as the spirit of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam pointed out. Cultural and historical education for all classes of people, especially teenagers, should be considered a strategic task. In the current era, culture is not only an asset for us to keep, cherish, and be proud of, but it must be considered a soft power of the country so that we can expand cooperation and competition in the international arena.

Promoting cultural diplomacy should not only stop at the level of introducing the image of Vietnam to the world but it is necessary to consider culture as a “weapon” to go out to the world, especially considering the strengths of Vietnamese traditional values. In addition, to promote soft power, it is necessary to “revive” Vietnam’s heritage and relics in a modern direction.

Vietnam is making more and more efforts to preserve, restore and promote both tangible and intangible heritages

Vietnam has a rich cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. It is making more and more efforts to preserve, restore and promote this heritage. In this respect, it seems extremely important for Vietnam to continue to invest in its heritage, and above all to make sure it is known and appreciated by its own population. This is a key objective of the cultural cooperation between France and Vietnam in the fields of preservation of cultural heritage and promotion of museums, which is a priority in the relationship between our two countries. For instance, France has been deeply involved in the field of heritage cooperation in Vietnam through a project of promotion of Vietnamese museum heritage, a few years ago.

The French Embassy in Vietnam has just launched a new two-year project aimed at upgrading cultural and natural heritage promotion. It includes an important academic dimension, with the creation of new academic programs in these sectors. It also includes exchanges of experiences and best practices between French and Vietnamese professionals in the museum sector. Raising awareness about culture and heritage among young Vietnamese is key for the conservation of this unique heritage, which is a source of inspiration for society but also a source of income for the economy, through tourism in particular.

Several French local governments have also invested a lot in the field of cooperation on heritage preservation and promotion. I am in particular thinking of the Ile-de-France Region, which is cooperating closely with the Thang Long Heritage Conservation Center Hanoi ; the Nouvelle Aquitaine Region is working with Hue and Lao Cai provinces on tourism and museography; the city of Toulouse is collaborating with Hanoi with the support of the French development Agency on a project focusing on preservation, management and promotion of emblematic urban and archaeological heritage sites; finally, the Occitanie Region and the Lam Dong province are implementing a programme to support the restoration of Da Lat’s historical monuments, with support from French architecture schools, in the context of an agreement recently signed between the two local authorities.