Communist Review - In human history as well as in Viet Nam’s history, culture with great endogenous power plays a driving role in promoting human creativity and development. Therefore, the unlocking and upholding of cultural resources is extremely important for Viet Nam’s socio-economic development, especially in the current situation.

1-The cultural category includes many aspects, has very rich content and can be understood in either broad or narrow senses.

In a broad sense, culture is all the material and spiritual values ​​made by man; therefore, culture consists of two basic aspects: material culture and spiritual culture. Both of these aspects were created by man at each specific stage of development and during the very long development of human history as well.

In a narrow sense, culture is considered as the spiritual life of society; the level of development that people and society have achieved in terms of education, science, literature, art, philosophy, morality, communication, and social behavior between people and people, between humans, human society and nature, etc. together with the respective institutions.

Surely, culture is not something that is available from the beginning of the human race, or something that is present in each person from the moment of birth. President Ho Chi Minh once wrote: “For survival as well as for the purpose of life, mankind created and invented language, writing, morality, law, science, religion, literature, art, tools for daily life in terms of food, clothing, shelters and methods of using these tools. All those creations and inventions are culture. Culture is the synthesis of all modes of living together with its expression that mankind has created in order to adapt to the needs of life and the requirements of survival”⁽¹⁾. Based on this, before Viet Nam gained the independence, President Ho Chi Minh had raised five major points to build Vietnamese culture including: “1) Psychological construction: the spirit of independence and self-reliance; 2) Moral construction: self-sacrifice, benefiting the masses; 3) Social construction: all causes are related to the people’s welfare in society; 4) Construction of civil and political rights; 5) Economic construction”⁽²⁾.

Right after Viet Nam gained independence, President Ho Chi Minh emphasized, "culture must light the way for the nation". Then, in his Letter to Artists on the occasion of the 1951painting exhibition, he clearly pointed out the close relationship between culture, economy and politics. He wrote: “Culture, arts like all other activities, they cannot be left out, but must be linked with economy and politics”⁽³⁾.

Particularly, absorbing and developing President Ho Chi Minh's views on culture, after more than 10 years of carrying out the comprehensive renovation of the country, at the 5^th Central Conference of the 8^th Tenure, on July 16, 1998, the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) issued a Resolution on "Building and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity". This resolution considered different cultural fields "as the spiritual foundation of society, both as a goal and as a driving force for socio-economic development"⁽⁴⁾. It can be said that this is one of the most complete and comprehensive resolutions of the CPVup to that time in terms of culture. The resolution affirms that, “taking care of culture is taking care of strengthening the spiritual foundation of society. Without a progressive and healthy spiritual foundation, without paying attention to the relationship between economic development and social progress and justice, there would be no sustainable socio-economic development”⁽⁵⁾.

Continuing the above viewpoint, the 12^th Party Congress of the CPV affirmed that it is necessary to "build a culture that really becomes a solid spiritual foundation of society, an important endogenous force to ensure the sustainable development and firmly defend the Vietnamese Fatherland for the goal of "prosperous people and a strong, democratic, equitable, and civilized country”⁽⁶⁾. The 13^th Party Congress of the CPV continued to highlight: "Developing a comprehensive human being and building an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity so that Vietnamese culture and people truly become an endogenous strength, a driving force for national development and defense”⁽⁷⁾.

The above affirmations are absolutely correct and necessary, emphasizing the important role of culture in social developmentand in the relationship between economic development and social development in Viet Nam.

Specifically, the above affirmations of the Resolution of the 5^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (8^th Tenure) and the congresses of the CPVare of extremely practical value when considering culture as a driving force and an endogenous strength promotingViet Nam’s economicand social development. These are new arguments, consistent with the awareness and practice of the current globalization and international integration in different aspects. Of course, it should be noted that the role of culture should never be absolute, nor should culture be considered the sole driving force in promoting socio-economic growth and development. However, if this force is underestimated or ignored, it will be a mistake that is difficult to be accepted, especially in the context that all countries in the world are entering the knowledge-based and digital economy, developing ata high speed and with great efficiency as a result of the human intelligence achievements.

More than ever, in the 21^st century, culture should be re-defined withits particularly important role in the national sustainable development, different from that in the 70s and 90s, a time when people believed that sustainable development consisted of three main pillars: economic sustainable development, socio-political sustainable development and environmentalsustainable development.

In a number of articles, the important role of cultural sustainable developmentwithin the social sustainable development in the current period as well as in the future has been argued and emphasized. Human history shows that if a nation wants to go further, have long-term effectiveness, and become more and more sustainable,its development must be placed in the development orbit of cultureand lightened by a healthy and progressive culture. This is of particularly significance when Viet Nam has not yet developed a strategy for cultural development in parallel with its economic development strategy, etc. In economic activities, when cultural factors and requirements for cultural development pointed out in the Resolution of the 5^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (8^th Tenure) of the CPV were not paid attention to, the mobilization of rich and diverse cultural resources, including material and spiritual culture, turning them into the driving force for the development of each locality as well as the development of the whole country plays an increasingly vital role⁽⁸⁾.

2- Whether understood in a broad or narrow sense, culture is still created by humans, preserved and passed on from generation to generation, and at the same time constantly forged and enriched by successive generations. Culture, as mentioned above, includes the two most basic aspects, namely material culture and spiritual culture, or tangible culture and intangible culture. Regardless of its specific form, culture is still an important resource and plays the role of "the driving force for socio-economic development". If culture is expressed in the form of tangible products, the way of exploiting and using these resources will be different from that of exploiting and using intangible cultural resources.

It can be said that in Viet Nam the resources of man-made and natural tangible cultural products that have been reinforced by manat different levels are extremely rich and diverse. Particularly valuable natural and man-made wonders are recognized by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage, not to mention other famous cultural relics with "endless beauty" throughout Viet Nam, such as Sa Pa (Lao Cai province), Ha Long Bay, Co To island, Yen Tu relic site (Quang Ninh province), Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam, Old town (Hanoi), Moc Chau (Son La province), Mai Chau (Hoa Binh province), Bai Dinh, Trang An (Ninh Binh province), Phong Nha - Ke Bang cave (Quang Binh province), Hue Citadel (Thua Thien Hue province), My Son, Hoi An (Quang Nam province), Cu Chi Tunnels - Ben Duoc (Ho Chi Minh City),etc. These places of interest attract a large number of domestic and international tourists, generating a great source of revenue to local and national budgets. If these tourist attractions are well connected with each otherand tourism is combined with national historical values, the multi-faceted effect will be significantly increased compared to being organized individually or spontaneously.

An issue that needs to be paid more attention to is intangible cultural resourcesfor Viet Nam’s development, also known as spiritual cultural resources. It can be understood that the spiritual life of society is the level of development that people and society have achieved in important aspects, such as the people's education level, the development level of science - technology, literature and art; ethical culture, political culture, leadership culture and social management culture; business culture, culture of communication, culture of social behavior between people and people and between people and nature, and above allthe level of philosophical culture.As C. Marx said, there is a natural connection between human thinking and philosophical vision with culture, and philosophy must "become the living soul of culture..."⁽⁹⁾.

In the contemporary world, these aspects of culture play an increasingly important role, contributing to speeding up social development faster than ever before. Spiritual cultural resources, such as art heritages, folklore quintessence, ethnic music, etc., if well exploited, both to serve tourism and to introduce and promote the national spiritual cultural values to the world, will create a boost for tourism, making a significant contribution to the cultural industry.

Although the effective exploitation and promotion of the cultural values ​​of the national value system in the process of national development are indispensable and inseparable from each individual’s will and aspiration to rise up, the country will not be able to develop if they arenot effectively exploited and nurtured. This is very noticeable whenever Viet Nam conducts a re-evaluation or summary of the development process of each past stage. However, what should be stressed here is that it is necessary to raise, and effectively use the level of political culture, leadership culture and social management culture; business culture; culture of communication; culture ofsocial behavior between people and people and between people and nature to promote the development of the whole country.

First of all, in the era of globalization, when the world is experiencing unpredictable political - social and geo - political changes like today, political culture plays a guiding role. In such conditions, if Viet Nam wants to develop quickly and sustainably, culture must permeate all aspects of social life. In particular, culture must penetrate deeply into the thinking of people who are playing the role of governance, management, and administration in such fields as science, literature and art, especially politics as political culture; that meanspolitics must be based on culture.

In the current era, culture-based politics will be a guarantee, a driving force to promote the building of a stable, democratic, free, equal, humane and sustainable society. In general, political culture, civil service culture, ethical culture and cultural background in general are always the driving force that creates strength and affirms the legitimacy of a leading and ruling political party, a regime of the people, by the people, for the people and ensures the sustainability of that regime. The value of this political-cultural resource is difficult to be measured in a usual way, but can only be assessed through specific results brought to each citizen and to the whole society by the political regime, through the stability and sustainability of the regime itself, and throughpeople’s satisfaction and trust.

The history of human society has shown that ethical culture and political culture can contribute to strengthening or promoting the development of a social regime. It can, however,inhibit or even cause harm that leads to the eradication and destruction of a dynasty and a country⁽¹⁰⁾. Therefore, the cultural background of political cadres, civil servants and public employees at all levels of state management in all social fields is an indispensable condition for them to be able to take on important roles.

Viet Nam is developing a socialist-oriented market economy. In order to develop this economy at a fast, healthy and steady pace in the current globalization process, Viet Nam needs not only a domestic market, but also a large international market. In other words, it is essential for Viet Nam to win domestic consumers’ trust, and what is more important is to maintain the trustof consumers in its trade and economic partners. Therefore, in addition to production capacity, skill level and other important qualities, for Viet Nam to win the world consumers’ trust, domestic businessmen must havebusiness culture and business ethics.

In order to make legitimate and sustainable profits, in the current era of the globalized market economy, Vietnamese businessmen must have not only moral responsibility, but also social responsibility, that is, making profits in a cultured manner. Therefore, the important content in business culture and entrepreneurial culture is the social responsibility of entrepreneurs and businesses. Doing business responsibly is required in business culture. This responsibility must be instilled in businessmen’s minds and reflected in the products they introduce to the market, especially those related to human health, especially young generations’ health.These products, at the same time, must be harmless to the environment, both natural and social ones. Here, benefit must be in harmony with truth; when the balance is broken, incalculable disasters are caused for both humans and the environment. The ethical culture and social responsibility of entrepreneurs is the highest and most concentrated expression of business culture. Therefore, it can be said that with ethicalculture, businesses can be successful;without it,theymaybe subject to failure, bankruptcy or legal violations.

Thus, the driving role of business culture in the market economy is the key, offering businessesopportunities to win in a fair and healthy competition, thereby promoting the development of social production.

Besides, to develop quickly and sustainably,it is of great necessityfor Viet Nam to behave culturally with nature and the natural environment. It is also significant to create a healthy social environment in which culture must be considered as the driving force for national socio-economic development.

Initially, in this respect, it is required to behave culturally with nature and the natural environment. It iscommonly understood that humans and society can only exist and develop in the natural environment, being closely connected with nature.C. Marx once wrote that, "Humans... liveon the inorganic natural world... The natural world... is man’sinorganic body. Humans liveon the natural world. That means the natural world is man’sbody, the body with which man must stay in the process of constant communication in order to survive... man is a part of the natural world”⁽¹¹⁾. Ph. Engels added that, "we ourselves, with our flesh, our blood and our minds, belong to the natural world, we are in the natural world". Therefore, Ph. Engels sternly warned, humans need to behave in a cultured way towards nature and that, “we have absolutely no control over nature as an invader dominates another nation, as a person who lives outside the realm of nature”⁽¹²⁾. Similar to Ph. Engels, C. Marx also once drew a warning conclusion that, “if farming is carried out spontaneously without conscious guidance... there will be wasteland left”⁽¹³⁾.

In Viet Nam’s history, generations of Vietnamese people have behaved toward nature in a harmonious way and have always upheld the philosophy of man and nature’s unity. Although Viet Nam has experienced many ups and downs caused by devastating wars, it stillbasicallymaintains a healthy living environment. However, the economic development, especially the nationwide industrial developmentoverthe past time, hasput Viet Nam into a difficult situation withvarious dilemmas over how to deal with the natural environment. Due to unscientific business activities, the pollution of soil, water, and air, etc. in numerous regions is at an alarmingly high rate. This is resulted by the lack of knowledge about environmental and ecological culture. Culture has not yet penetrated into the thinking of policy makers and planners, and has not been given due attention by advisory agencies. Here, law enforcement agencies are also significantly responsible for that. In other words, the lack of systematic thinking, the lack of synchronization in policy making, development planning, and inspection are still Viet Nam’s major problems.

Over the past few decades, there have been a multitude of urgent warnings about the undesirable effects of pollution and destruction of the natural environment worldwide. For example, according to International Conservation Organization, in recent years, “in every twenty minute, besidesa species of living beingsbecoming extinct, 485 hectares of forests are burned, destroyed for economic purposes.”⁽¹⁴⁾.

In Viet Nam, the deforestation of watersheds and protection forests, the burning of forests to get arable land, and the illegal logging of precious timbers in primeval forests have caused floods, pipe floods, flash floods, landslides, which are destroying the habitat of living species and threatening human beings’ lives as well.

Humans have been closely associated with both the natural environment and the social environment since its appearance until now. Human development is also subject to certain constraints and regulations of the environment, although man himself is ableto modify both the natural environment and the social environment. Well protecting the natural environment means protecting the basis of human existence. However, people cannot develop their good qualities without a clean and healthy social environment. Therefore, building a clean and healthy social environment is an indispensable condition for the development and perfection of human beings - the basic production force of society, thereby promoting social development.

A clean and healthy social environment with cultural values ​​must be the one that creates the best conditions for the development of all talents and creativity. In any society, the number of people with real talent is not rare, but in order for them to develop, society “must take care of soil so that the trees can grow up well. Geniuses can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom”⁽¹⁵⁾. What hinders human development is the fact that people are repressed by conservative, harsh, and anti-human laws, and lawlessness, especially the lack of real democracy and freedom. People cannot express their talents, cannot develop their intelligence to the highest level if they have to live in a suffocating social atmosphere, without democracy and freedom. However, if it is a lawless and boundless freedom, regardless of discipline and permission, it will lead to a disordered and unstable society, hindering development. In other words, a free and democratic environment under the control of the law and in accordance with historical and social conditions is the real driving force of development. Creating a harmony between law, discipline and freedom and democracy in society for everyone is to create a suitable social environment to encourage creativity, initiatives and scientific inventions; thereby, promoting production and social development. The power and force of culture are most evident at this point.

In a nutshell, it can be affirmed once again that culture plays an extremely important role in the development process. Once culture stagnates, there is no socio-economic development. Therefore, unlocking cultural resources and promoting cultural values are an urgent requirement in the current context, contributing to promoting the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy Viet Nam in the spirit of the Resolution of the13^thCongress of the CPV.

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(1), (2) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Volume, National Politics and Truth Publisher, Hanoi, 2011, t. 3, p. 458

(3) Ho Chi Minh: Complete volume, Sdd, t. 7, p. 246

(4), (5) Documents of the Fifth Conference of the Central Committee of the CPV, term VIII,National Politics Publisher, Hanoi, 1998, p. 55

(6) Documents of the 12th National Congress of the CPV, National Politics and Truth Publisher, Hanoi, 2016, p. 126 - in italics by the author

(7) Document of the 13th National Congress of the CPV, National Politics and Truth Publisher, Hanoi, 2021, t. 1, p. 115 – 116

(8) Documents of the Fifth Conference of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, term VIII, Sdd, p. 52, 53

(9) C. Marx and Ph. Engels: Complete volume, National Politics Publisher, Hanoi, 1995, t. 1, p. 157 - in italics for emphasis by the Author

(10) See: Nguyen Trong Chuan: Corruption and its dangers, Journal of Viet Nam’s Social Sciences, No. 12-2013, p. 53 – 60

(11) C. Marx and Ph. Engels: Complete Volume, National Politics Publisher, Hanoi, 2000, t. 42, p. 134, 135

(12) C. Marx and Ph. Engels: Complete Volume, National Politics Publisher, Hanoi, 1994, t. 20, p. 635

(13) C. Marx and Ph. Engels: Complete Volume, National Politics Publisher, Hanoi, 1997, t. 32, p. 80

(14) Credentialed: Thomas L. Friedman: Hot, flat, and crowded, Ho Chi Minh City Young Publisher, 2009, p. 200

(15) J.S. Mill: Talking about freedom, Tri Thuc Publisher, Hanoi, 2005, p. 148

This article was published in the Communist Review No.  963 (April 2021)