Editor’s note: Nguyen Cuong, a 73-year-old contestant, envisions a fair Vietnamese society in 2035 as he joined the “Ky Vong Viet Nam 20 Nam Toi” (“My Expectations for Vietnam in 20 Years”) writing competition.

A fair society is everyone’s desire. Fairness in every facet of life does not come on its own, but must be acquired step by step with great efforts.

A society of greater impartiality is thus what many and I expect of our country in the next 20 years.

In the past few decades, our country has seen noteworthy improvement in our material and spiritual life, particularly the significant accomplishments achieved during the past 30 years in which reforms have been carried out.

We are aiming at building a society that is prosperous, democratic, fair and civilized. Sustainable economic growth must go hand in hand with social progress, which encompasses fairness. If that is achieved, our society will be stable, peaceful and conducive to an auspicious environment which facilitates people doing business and reaping their own fruits. The rich-poor gap would thus be narrowed.

The current situation

Disparities in income levels and the rich-poor gap are relatively evident in today’s society. According to the statistics which compare income difference coefficients between the lowest and highest groups, the coefficient in 2006 was 8.3, and rose to 9.2 in 2010 and 11 in 2013, respectively. Such a widening rich-poor rift is quite abnormal for a wholesomely flourishing society.

A fraction of those in the high income bracket have enjoyed increasingly lavish lifestyles, which is manifest in their stately property and extravagant interior décor and cars. Their other indulgences include collecting rare ornamental animals and plants, building imposing worship shrines, and traveling abroad for fun or medical treatment trips to an unnecessary extent.

Of course it’s a good thing that people get rich thanks to their own efforts and hard work. However, it is worth considering if a portion of the nouveaux-riche becomes wealthy overnight through non-transparent means and further deepens the rich-poor gap.

In addition, no one is happy that in rural, remote areas, which suffer a lack of properly built bridges, students and workers still have to cross rivers by swinging, walking on trembling makeshift bamboo poles, or adopting other life-threatening ways every day on their way to school and work.               

In some locales, between 60 and 90 percent of households have yet to have access to power supply. Many also languish due to a shortage of clean water and inadequate access to medical care or education. 

Further worsening aspects of social unfairness includes rife corruption, wastefulness and loss of public assets, which have grown worryingly sophisticated these days.

If curbed, the bribes or losses would otherwise be earmarked for efforts meant to balance the needs of people in different localities, and improve infrastructure, social welfare and basic medical services.

Furthermore, we cannot tolerate constructors skimming funds from civil engineering and housing projects, thus seriously undermining their quality, with many bridges and streets sinking and even collapsing shortly after being opened to traffic. Meanwhile, a number of imposing edifices go to waste soon after construction. Progress on many mammoth projects implemented on “golden” land plots is painstakingly slow or grinds to a complete standstill, which is a huge waste of resources.        Corruption has become worryingly rampant and sophisticated, despite the immense efforts exerted by the Communist Party of Vietnam and the State to combat the plague.

The aforementioned actuality has yet to create high social consensus. People have the right to compare their living standards with others around them. 

It’s of the essence that specific solutions be adopted to target social fairness.

In my opinion, immediate attention should be paid to a number of major, fundamental solutions, which are as follows:

1. First of all, strategists who are tasked with compiling documents related to the Party’s and State’s policies and directives should always ensure fairness for all social classes, particularly the poor and underprivileged, low-incomers and those with wartime and peacetime contributions.

2. More radical, effective measures are also needed to fight corruption, loss of public assets and wastefulness. That would create significant resources which would be invested in public welfare and aid to the needy. To do so, it’s essential that bribes and sums that go to waste be retrieved.

3. As our country remains a developing one, awareness should be raised of frugality among people. Frugality should be considered a national policy which would facilitate an equalized, fair society.

Examples of thriftiness should also be set when it comes to daily expenditure, construction projects and festival organization. Efforts have been made, but remained limited so far.

4. Measures should also be taken to improve the salaries of workers and civil servants, and balance social classes’ income levels. That would help bridge the immense disparity in terms of salaries and bonuses among local and foreign-owned enterprises.

5. It’s advisable that the government provide timely aid in both money and in kind for those in locales struck by natural calamities or pandemics. Charitable activities conducted by individuals and groups should be made the most of.

More efforts should also be made to improve infrastructure in rural and mountainous localities. Funding should also be mobilized from different sources in society to boost sustainable poverty eradication, which is integral to social fairness in 2035.

6. It’s necessary that health care and education be made accessible to low income earners. Improved social welfare is also evidence of fairness.

Despite notable improvements to social welfare, it’s vital that more attempts be made to further benefit people, particularly the elderly, especially when the country’s population is aging.