Vietnam appoints new central bank governor
HANOI, - Vietnam on Thursday approved Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to head its central bank in a move to shore up its fragile banking sector.
An official at the National Assembly said Dung, nominated on Monday by Premier Phan Van Khai as governor of the State Bank, was supported by all but three of the 423 deputies present for the assembly vote.
Dung, 48, has no direct banking experience but Khai said earlier on Thursday it was more important to have strong leadership at the bank during difficult economic times.
``The opinion of the government is that we need to dispatch a comrade deputy prime minister to be in charge for a while,'' Khai told reporters.
``The banking field is very sensitive so we need someone who has power to correct the banking activities... to avoid risks which may lead to collapse,'' he said during an assembly break.
Dung, who retains his post as deputy prime minister, is likely to run the State Bank for two years, with current deputy governor Le Duc Thuy handling day-to-day affairs.
The position of State Bank governor has been vacant since Cao Si Kiem was sacked last October, and political analysts have linked the delay in naming a replacement to a lack of agreement within Vietnam's consensus-driven leadership.
One of Kiem's deputies, Do Que Luong, has held the post of acting governor in the interim.
When contacted by telephone late on Thursday afternoon, Luong declined to comment and said he did not know that Dung had been appointed.
Khai said the speedy appointment of Dung was crucial to offset mounting woes in Vietnam's nascent banking sector.
He said the financial crisis in Asia was not having a serious impact on Vietnam but the country needed to move swiftly and keep a watchful eye on developments.
It was not necessary for the new governor to have direct banking experience, he added.
``We may not have experience in the banking field as our country has grown up from wars and battles. Professionals will take care of banking but the issue here is that we need leadership to correct the banking sector,'' Khai said.
Dung was among the youngest people ever to serve on the elite communist party politburo, which he joined at a national congress in mid-1996.
A former law student, Dung trained at the Nguyen Ai Quoc party ideological academy during the 1980s.
In 1994 he was appointed deputy minister of interior, and last September was made first deputy prime minister with responsibility for the economy.
``As you know, in other countries the minister of health is not a doctor and the defence minister is not a soldier. Many countries follow that trend,not only Vietnam,'' Khai said.
Khai added that the government was attempting to address serious problems related to bad lending policies and overdue debt.
``We are correcting the quality of credit in order to make loans more effective and keep the levels of overdue and outstanding debt low,'' he said.
It was unclear when Dung would begin his new duties. A government source said he was in southern Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday.
By Andy Soloman - REUTERS, May 7, 1998.
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