Burning aspiration: transforming Vietnam into a Dragon

When globalization began, Southeast Asia was at the bottom of the world in terms of economic development; and Vietnam was at the bottom of Southeast Asia. But the Doi moi reform process has pushed Vietnam to great achievements and the country is rising.

Thang Long - a flying dragon and our ancestors' aspiration

More than a thousand years ago, in the spring of 1010, Ly Cong Uan, the king who founded the Ly dynasty, visited his hometown in Co Phap, now Tu Son township in Bac Ninh province. This historic trip was made just a few months after he ascended the throne on November 21, 1009 to make a final survey of the location planned for building a new capital.

The 10th century was a time of instability, power struggles as well as endless struggles to preserve and affirm national independence. Ly Cong Uan understood his mission very clearly when he ascended the throne. Before assuming power, he was carefully and methodically trained by many of the most profound Buddhist intellectual Zen masters of that time. With the combination of the training and his natural talent, he had an unusually outstanding vision – to build the country on a large scale, promote economic development and cultural advancement.

For realizing the vision, he felt that rugged mountainous terrain of Hoa Lu, then the nation’s capital, was no longer suitable. He firmly issued the "Edict on Moving the Capital". Historians and cultural scholars have analyzed and pondered Ly Thai To's "Edict to Move the Capital" innumerable times and have found new values each time.

In the "Edict on Moving the Capital", one passage states: "Dai La Citadel, the old capital of Cao Vuong, is in the middle of heaven and earth, flanked by dragons and tigers, in the middle of North, South, East, and West, with mountains and rivers behind and in front. In this area, the land is wide and flat, high and bright, the people are not miserable, and everything is very lush and prosperous. In Vietnam, this is a place of triumph, truly an important gathering place for the four directions, truly the place for a prosperous capital forever."

According to legends, when the king's boat landed on the banks of the river below the Dai La Citadel, a golden dragon appeared, curled up as if welcoming the king to set up the capital on this land and then flew into the high clouds. That's why the king issued a decree to change the name from Dai La to Thang Long. This is a beautiful name, containing trust and pride in the land chosen to build the new capital. Thang Long means "flying dragon." The dragon is also a symbol of the emperor and the desire to build an independent, self-reliant, powerful country that can compete with great powers.

Dragon in Vietnamese conception

For Vietnamese people, dragons are a special mascot. The legend "Con Rong Chau Tien" (Offsprings of the Dragon and the Fairy) has been around for thousands of years, passed down through generations, giving Vietnamese people pride about their bloodline. Among the four sacred creatures, the dragon is at the top, symbolizing power and supreme leadership. It is also a symbol of a prosperous country.

According to ancient Vietnamese belief, dragons are children of the sky that can make rain, deliver abundant harvests, make all things grow, and cool the air. Dragons have the ability to regulate the energy of heaven and earth, bestowing goodness on the world. Dragon is a symbol of boundless power and has supreme significance in feng shui.

In feudal times, the dragon was a symbol of the power of the head of the country. The king was also called the son of heaven. Therefore, the king's clothes, seals and utensils depicted dragons. The architecture of palaces and mausoleums of ancient kings also paid special attention to using the image of the Dragon.

Dragon images are depicted in many communal houses, pagodas and temples. Dragons have been brought into places of worship by people, often appearing in a lying position, meaning ready to protect and serve. They hover over the roof of the communal house. The dragon bends along the pagoda column, lies beside the Buddha statue. The dragon's head lifts the footsteps of Avalokiteshvara Buddha amid the waves and winds of the sea.

In addition to the ability to attract fortune, feng shui dragon statues also have the ability to eliminate evil and neutralize evil spirits. The Ly Dynasty dragon head found at the Thang Long Imperial Citadel archaeological area is considered a national treasure not only unique for its visual art but also as a spiritual artefact of the Vietnamese people.

The dragon symbolizes power and the prosperity of the nation and according to today's standards, this means building a country with a strong economy with advanced science and technology and culture imbued with national identity. We can call this process "Turning into a dragon". This is exactly what Koreans, Singaporeans and Taiwanese have accomplished in just decades of peace with smart, effective cooperation with developed countries. This is also what Vietnamese people desire.

Vietnam's path to becoming a dragon

After nearly 40 years of Doi moi reforms, the country has recorded great, comprehensive achievements. Vietnam used to be a poor country devastated by war. Moreover, we were caught up in a deadlocked development theory, so that in the late 70s and early 80s of the 20th century, a hard socio-economic crisis occurred, inflation ran rampant. Life was extremely difficult, food shortages were constant, and about three quarters of the population lived at the poverty level.

The Doi moi policy has many factors, but in general, they are recognition of a multi-sector market economy; giving people the right to make a living and do business; opening the economy to attract foreign resources for investment; creating conditions for Vietnamese people to go abroad to make a living; and building a transparent legal environment so that domestic and foreign businesses can feel secure in investing and getting rich in the country. Thanks to these, the economy began to develop steadily with a relatively high growth rate, an average of nearly 7% per year. The scale of the economy was constantly expanding.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), after 37 years of Doi moi, by 2023, the scale of Vietnam's GDP would reach approximately $450 billion, a 50-fold increase. In particular, in the 1986-2022 period, Vietnam was one of the top 5 countries in the world in terms of economic growth; and became the fourth largest economy in ASEAN.

With average income per capita increasing about 17 times to $4,500, Vietnam left the group of low-income countries in 2008. From a country with chronic food shortages, the country has not only ensured food security but also become a rice exporting country and one of the biggest exporters of rice and many other agricultural products in the world.

The country's industry is developing quite rapidly, with the proportion of industry and services in GDP continuously rising and currently accounting for about 85% of the GDP. In 2023, the total import and export turnover of goods is estimated at $683 billion, with an export turnover of about $355.5 billion. The trade surplus was around $28 billion.

The policy of economic development coupled with cultural development, social progress and justice at every step of development has helped the country's social and cultural development.

The quality of life has increased with the poverty rate decreasing rapidly. To date, more than 60% of the nation’s communes have met new rural standards. Most rural communes have motorable roads to their downtown areas, national electricity grid, primary and secondary schools, medical stations and telecommunication services.

Besides the bright spots, however, our country's economy is facing many difficulties and challenges that need to be accurately identified and resolved. Vietnam's economy can develop at a faster pace if we remove obstacles and bottlenecks in development.

First, there is the bottleneck of a cumbersome and relatively ineffective administrative apparatus.

Second, waste, corruption, and negligence wastes our resources. Last year was also a year when many major criminal cases were brought to light, involving the loss of thousands of billions of Vietnamese dong (VND1,000 billion = $41 million). Key national projects have been delayed.

Obstacles in land policies that are not consistent with reality, coupled with high financial costs, have also caused many difficulties for enterprises.

Another equally important bottleneck is the imbalance in infrastructure and human resources. The Mekong Delta is the rice granary of the country, but its infrastructure is still very weak and lacks synchronization, and the region has a serious dearth of high-quality human resources.

At a recent government meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that in the coming time, ministries, branches and localities need to be more proactive and drastic, focusing on removing difficulties and obstacles, reducing administrative procedures, shortening implementation time, coordinating to resolve related procedures on forest land, capital sources etc. to speed up implementation of projects and accelerate economic development.

Historical lessons show that when we dare to look straight at the truth, identify the problems and obstacles, we can remove them, especially when there is consensus and effective cooperation between the Party, State and People. This is the fundamental condition for the Vietnamese economy to take advantage of opportunities of the times to accelerate development and transform itself into a Dragon, which is the millennial aspiration of the entire nation, as well as the burning desire of President Ho Chi Minh.