Vietnamese president says necessary to remove "tumors" of corruption

Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang said Tuesday in an interview with Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA that corruption is considered as "tumors" which are necessary to be removed in order to "comfort the people's mind".

Sang made the remarks while reviewing the country's development in 2014 and tasks for 2015 ahead of the upcoming Lunar New Year.

Regarding anti-corruption initiatives, the state leader said in recent years, Vietnam has carried out measures to detect and fight against corruption, which have produced significant results, Sang said to VNA.

"However, the results were insufficient as corruption and wastefulness have not been completely eliminated," he stated, urging for more drastic measures, unswerving efforts and increased determination to combat the issue and increase the sense of security among the nation's people.

Moreover, according to the president, Vietnam's economic growth in recent years has relied heavily on investment increase, intensive use of natural resources and labor with low productivity and quality, which are negatively affecting the country's rapid and sustainable development.

He also stressed the challenges Vietnam is facing in the financial and banking sector, including substantial public debt and state budget overspending, as well as sluggish production and business activities, limitations in education and science- technology development.

"It is difficult for Vietnam to improve its competitiveness with a high proportion of outsourced products, low and middle level technology, unskilled workforce and low productivity."

"Therefore, the solution is to improve the awareness of agencies at all levels, elevating their determination to tackle any challenges hindering national development."

Sang emphasized the need to accelerate reforms, renovate growth models and facilitate economic restructuring to increase the competitiveness of the economy, boost rapid and sustainable development, and successfully implement industrialization and modernization initiatives.

"Rapid reforms are essential to the country, as delays in this initiative will slow down economic development, cause macro- economic instability, and increase social evils and income inequality. Besides social insecurity, failure to reform will degrade community trust in the party and the state," the leader said.

"We should continue updating and perfecting the socialist- oriented market economy institution and focus on human resources training, in order to expeditiously improve the country's position in the world economy," he said. Endi