Communist Party of Vietnam National Party Congresses

(13th Congress) - Since its establishment, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has gone through 12 congresses. Each Party congress is an important historical milestone to recognize and mark the victories, achievements and lessons learned in the Vietnamese revolution under the leadership of the Party.

Conference founding the CPV

The congress to unite communist organizations in Vietnam under the chairmanship of comrade Nguyen Ai Quoc in Hong Kong (China), January 6 - February 7, 1930, was of the historical stature of the congress founding the CPV. The meeting set out a brief political program, the strategy and charter of the Party and the call of comrade Nguyen Ai Quoc on behalf of the Communist International and the CPV to send to workers, farmers, soldiers, youngsters, students and all people oppressed and exploited, on the occasion of the Party founding. In which, the Party's brief political program and strategy reflected the content of the first political platform of the CPV.

The 1st Congress: Restoring the organization, unifying revolutionary struggle movements under the leadership of the Party

Time of organization: March 27-31, 1935 

Place of organization: Macau (China)

Number of Party members nationwide: 600

Number of delegates to congress: 13

Party General Secretary elected at the congress: Comrade Le Hong Phong

Number of Party Central Committee (PCC) members elected at the congress: 13

Main task: Reinforcing the organizational system of the Party from the central to local levels, from inside the country to abroad.

The congress adopted the Party political resolution; the resolutions on mobilizing workers, farmers, young persons, ethnic minority people and women, Party charter; and the charter of the Party mass organizations. 

The congress appointed comrade Nguyen Ai Quoc the Party's representative beside the Communist International.

In July 1936, comrade Ha Huy Tap was elected the Party General Secretary.

In March 1938, comrade Nguyen Van Cu was elected the Party General Secretary.

The 1st Congress was an important milestone, marking the victory of the struggle for maintaining and restoring the Party organizations from the central to local levels.

The 2nd Congress: Leading the resistance war against the French imperialists to complete victory.

Number of PCC members elected at the congress: 29 Number of Politburo members: 7

Main task: Leading the resistance war against the French imperialists to complete victory

The congress summarized 21 years of the Party leadership over the people's democratic revolution, and 5 years of leadership over the young Government and the resistance war of national construction

Due to the development and requirements of the revolutionary cause and resistance war, the congress decided to build a separate Communist Party in each Indochinese country. In Vietnam, the Party adopted the name Vietnam Labor Party. 

The congress adopted the charter of the Vietnam Labor Party.

The congress marked an important milestone during the Party leadership and development, satisfying the urgent requirement of the reality, and leading the resistance war against the French imperialists to complete victory.

The 3rd Congress: Building socialism in the North, struggling for national reunification.

Number of PCC members elected at the congress: 47 

Number of Politburo members: 11 

Main task: Building socialism in the North, struggling for national reunification in the South

The congress summarized 30 years of Party leadership, and put forth the theoretical and practical lessons of the Vietnamese revolution under the leadership of the Party. 

The congress clearly pointed out that the task of socialist revolution in the North was the most decisive task for the development of the entire revolution of our country.

The congress determined the southern revolution had a very important position, directly deciding the cause of liberating the South from the American imperial domination and henchmen, unifying the country, and completing the task of people’s democratic revolution in the country. 

The congress decided to take February 3 of each calendar year as the anniversary of the establishment of the CPV.

The 4th Congress: Completing the cause of southern liberation, national unification, bringing the whole country to socialism.

The 4th National Party Congress was held in Hanoi from December 14 to 20, 1976, with the participation of 1,008 Party members representing more than 1.55 million Party members nationwide. 29 international delegations also attended the event. 

The Congress summarized the great lessons of the resistance war against the US, national salvation, and bringing the country towards socialism. 

It defined the tasks, motto and measures of the Party’s work in the new stage, ensuring the Party fulfills its responsibility of leading the country to conduct the socialist revolution. 

The Congress decided to rename Vietnam Workers’ Party the Communist Party of Vietnam, and adopted the Party’s new Statutes with 11 chapters and 59 articles. It restored the post of General Secretary instead of First Secretary. 

The Congress decided to take back the original name of the Party, the CPV. It elected the PCC, including 101 official members and 32 alternate members. The PCC elected the Politburo, including 14 official members and 3 alternate ones. Comrade Le Duan was elected Party General Secretary.

The 5th Congress: All for socialist fatherland of Vietnam, for the happiness of the people.

The 5th National Party Congress was held in Hanoi, from March 27 to 31, 1982, with the participation of 1,033 delegates representing 1.727 million Party members. 

The Congress judged that the country faced great economic and social difficulties, partially due to the shortcomings and mistakes of Party and State agencies on the leadership and management. Therefore, the Party must lead the people to perform two strategic tasks: successfully building socialism and being ready for fighting and firmly defending the Socialist Vietnamese Fatherland. 

The congress elected the PCC, including 116 official members and 36 alternate ones. The PCC elected the Politburo, including 13 official members and 2 alternate ones. Comrade Le Duan was re-elected Party General Secretary.

The 6th Congress: Initiating and leading the country’s renewal (Doi Moi) cause.

The 6th National Party Congress was held in Hanoi, from December 15 to 18, 1986, with the participation of 1,129 delegates representing more than 2.1 million Party members. 

In the spirit of “looking straight at the truth, evaluating the truth properly and speaking the truth”, the congress affirmed the determination to reform the Party’s leadership. 

The congress elected the PCC, including 124 official members and 49 alternate ones. The PCC elected the Politburo, including 13 official members and one alternate member. Comrade Nguyen Van Linh was elected Party General Secretary.

The 7th Congress: comprehensive and synchronous renewal, bringing the country forward to socialism.

The 7th National Party Congress took place from June 24 to 27, 1991 in Hanoi with the participation of 1,176 delegates representing 2,155,022 Party members. 

With the mission "Continuing to perform the task of bringing the country to the renewal path", the 7th National Party Congress was the first congress to adopt the National Construction Platform in the transitional period to socialism in Vietnam.

The congress re-affirmed that the CPV is the vanguard of the Vietnamese working class, a faithful representative for the interests of the working class, the working people and of the whole nation. The Party took Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thought as the ideological background, the guideline for action, and took democratic focus as the basic organizational principle. 

The congress elected the PCC, including 146 members. The PCC elected the Politburo, including 13 members, and the Secretariat, including 9 members. Comrade Do Muoi was elected the Party General Secretary.

The 8th Congress: continuing to reform, strengthen national industrialization and modernization.

The 8th National Party Congress took place from June 28 to July 1, 1996 in Hanoi. The congress was attended by 1,198 Party members representing 2,130,000 Party members of the whole Party.

The congress affirmed: Vietnam has gotten out of the socio-economic crisis, but some fields were still uncertain. Summarizing the 10-year renewal process, the congress drew 6 main lessons.

The congress elected the PCC, including 170 members. The PCC elected the Politburo, including 19 members. Comrade Do Muoi was re-elected as Party General Secretary.

At the 4th meeting of the PCC, term XIII, organized on December 22 to 29, 1997, the PCC agreed to the proposal by Party General Secretary Do Muoi on transferring the position of Party General Secretary, and elected Comrade Le Kha Phieu as the Party General Secretary.

The 9th Congress: Promoting the whole national strength, strengthening industrialization and modernization.

The 9th National Party Congress was organized in Hanoi on April 19 to 22, 2001 with the participation of 1,168 delegates representing 2,479,719 party members. 

With the action motto: “Intelligence, democracy, solidarity and renewal”, the congress summarized five years of implementation of the Resolution of the 8th National Party Congress, 10 years of implementation of the Strategy for Socio-Economic Stability and Development, 15 years of renewal, drawing lessons from the renewal process, thereby developing and completing the policies, specifying the national development strategy in the first two decades of the 21st century.

The congress clearly pointed out the general model of the transitional period to socialism in Vietnam, which is the multi-sectoral commodity economic development, operating under the socialist oriented state-managed market mechanism. 

The congress affirmed and attached importance to clean and strong Party building. That is the key task, the decisive factor for the existence and development of the Party, the factor to ensure the success of the cause of industrialization, modernization, regional and international integration, and constructing and firmly defending the nation. 

The congress elected the PCC, including 150 members; the first meeting of the PCC elected the Politburo, including 15 members; and the Secretariat, including 9 members. Comrade Nong Duc Manh was elected Party General Secretary.

The 10th Congress: mobilizing and well using all resources, soon bringing Vietnam out of underdeveloped situation.

The 10th National Party Congress was held on April 18 - 25, 2006 in Hanoi with the participation of 1,176 delegates representing more than 3.1 million party members of the whole Party. 

The congress reviewed 5 years of implementation of the Resolution of the 9th National Party Congress, summarized the 20 years of renewal, and identified the targets and directions for national development for the next 5 years. 

The congress evaluated that after 20 years of renewal, Vietnam had made great achievements of historical significance. It also highlighted five great lessons. 

The congress decided the general target of the next five years of improving the Party's leadership capacity and combativeness, promoting the strength of the whole nation, comprehensively promoting the cause of renewal, mobilizing and well using all resources for the country's industrialization and modernization; developing culture; realizing social progress and equity; strengthening national defense and security, expanding foreign relations; proactively and actively integrating into the international economy; maintaining socio-political stability; soon bringing our country out of the underdeveloped situation; and creating a foundation for Vietnam to basically become a modern industrialized country by 2020. 

The congress also stated the consistent implementation of independent, self-controlled and peaceful, cooperative and open foreign affairs policy with multi-lateralization and diversification of international relations. 

The congress elected the PCC, including 160 official members and 21 alternate members. The first meeting of the PCC elected the Politburo, including 14 members and the Secretariat, including 8 members. Comrade Nong Duc Manh was re-elected Party General Secretary. 

The 11th Congress: Continue enhancing Party’s leadership capacity and combativeness, comprehensively boosting doi moi (renewal) process.

The 11th National Party Congress took place from January 12 to 19, 2011 in Hanoi, with the participation of 1,377 delegates, representing more than 3.6 million Party members. 

The congress discussed and approved the Platform for national construction in the transitional period to socialism (supplemented and amended in 2011); Socio-economic development strategy for 2011-2020; Report of the 10th PCC; Party Charter (supplemented and amended) and many other important documents. 

The congress elected the PCC, term XI, including 175 official members and 25 alternate ones. At the first meeting, the PCC elected the Politburo, including 14 members and the Secretariat, including four members. Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong was elected Party General Secretary.

The 12th Congress: Entering an era of integration and development.

The 12th National Party Congress took place in Hanoi from January 20 to 28, 2016 with the participation of 1,510 delegates representing 4.5 million Party members. 

The congress set out key tasks for the next 5 years, mainly focusing on economy, building the Party, improving the quality of growth, labor productivity, and resolutely and firmly defending the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the Fatherland. 

The 12th National Party Congress is the first Congress in which our Party implemented the Project: “Planning of the PCC, the Politburo, the Secretariat, key leadership positions of the Party and State for the term 2020- 2021 and the next terms”. On the basis of the strategic-level cadre planning project, personnel preparation work of the PCC, the Politburo, the Secretariat and key leadership positions of the Party and State for the term 2016-2021 is conducted according to a strict, methodical, scientific, prudent and real process, promoting democracy, maintaining discipline, creating a high unification of the PCC, term XI, and delegates to the congress. 

With a high sense of responsibility, the congress elected the PCC, including 180 official members and 20 alternative ones.

At the first meeting, PCC elected the Politburo, the Secretariat of the PCC, and the PCC Commission of Inspection. Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong was re-elected Party General Secretary./.