Vietnam to name new cabinet amid corruption sweep
HANOI - Vietnam's
highest legislative body meets on
Friday for a twice-yearly session
that will approve a new
government and endorse a
campaign by the ruling
Communist Party to root out
corruption.
The party, which is actively
wooing foreign investors, set the
scene for the 20-day session of the National Assembly on
Monday by sacking two officials from its powerful Central
Committee for links with a notorious gangland boss.
"The Communist Party and the National Assembly of Vietnam are determined to win this (anti-corruption) battle,
which is likely to last for a long time," Vu Mao, director of the National Assembly's office, told reporters on
Tuesday.
Vietnam, a Southeast Asian nation with a population of 79 million and emerging capital markets, is frequently
ranked among Asia's more corrupt and inefficient nations.
As a result, it is keen to reassure foreign investors that it is serious about battling corruption and government
reform as it works towards its goal of following China into the World Trade Organisation by 2005.
"The priority is on developing a law-governed state and encouraging foreign investment," said Carl Thayer, a
political analyst with the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.
"When ministers are found to be inefficient and/or corrupt, they get the sack."
Much will depend on the pace of change.
State-run Vietnam Television (VTV), quoting a Central Committee statement, said on Monday that Vice Police
Minister Bui Quoc Huy and the ministerial-ranked head of state radio, Tran Mai Hanh, had been expelled from
the party's decision-making body.
The statement, issued after a meeting of the Central Committee on Monday, said Huy and Hanh were sacked for
"having direct connections during a long period with some bad elements" in a the ring headed by underworld
kingpin Truong Van Cam.
But as the 498-member assembly prepares to meet, it is unclear whether more dismissals are in the pipeline or
whether any fresh curbs are planned.
No change at the top
The new government, which will be chosen by the party and watched closely for any shifts in government direction
and policy, is expected to have no new faces at the top.
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai is expected to stay on until at least late 2003 and Vietnam watchers predict that
President Tran Duc Luong will have his term extended.
But Trade Minister Vu Khoan, instrumental in the passage of a landmark trade pact between Vietnam and its
former enemy the United States, is expected to be elevated to one of the four deputy prime minister posts, in
charge of foreign affairs.
"It (the U.S. trade agreement) was the feather in his crown," said one foreign diplomat in Hanoi. "Minister Vu
Khoan is seen as very capable. The promotion is in recognition of his qualities."
Other possible changes include the retirements of Industry Minister Dang Vu Chu, Minister of Planning and
Investment Tran Xuan Gia and Health Minister Do Nguyen Phuong.
The party, meeting in secret, prepares a list of ministers, which is then submitted to the assembly.
Mao said the National Assembly could approve the new government by the end of the month, adding that
policies, including those on trade, would remain unchanged.
"In term of trade relations, we are committed to continuing trade integration, to joining the international trade
organisations such as the WTO -- something we have been actively preparing for," he said.
"No matter who the new trade minister is...they will continue this work."
Reuters - July 17, 2002.
Communist Vietnam's parliament set to rubber stamp new leaders
Communist Vietnam's newly-elected parliament convenes
Friday, tasked with approving a leadership shake-up and
slashing a bloated bureaucracy, against the backdrop of an
explosive gangster scandal.
With two top officials already sacrificed for their role in the
Nam Cam mafia network, the National Assembly -- much
derided for being a Communist Party rubber stamp -- will
also have to reassure international donors that ambitious
reform plans will not be derailed by corruption.
"The attitude and policy of the National Assembly is to fight
corruption categorically and persistently to the end. This will
be a long fight," Vu Mao, chairman of the office of the
National Assembly, told reporters on Tuesday.
Eradicating graft and restructuring the administrative organs of power are among the key components of a
three-year World Bank- and IMF-assisted reform programme launched in 2001 to help integrate Vietnam into the
world economy.
But the 498-member parliament's immediate task during the first of two annual sittings will be to bless the new
government line-up decided by the Party's secretive Central Committee over the last few weeks.
At the heart of intense speculation within diplomatic circles on the Machiavellian workings of the party's inner
sanctum, is whether there will be any changes among Vietnam's troika of leaders.
While General Secretary Nong Duc Manh's place at the helm is written in stone, having been elected for a
five-year term at the Party Congress in April 2001, the fate of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and President Tran
Duc Luong remain less certain.
One Western diplomat said some factions within the Central Committee had been pushing for Vietnam to follow
the Chinese model with Manh taking on the presidency along with his party leadership role.
This would alleviate the embarrassment of not being accorded the formal welcome normally laid on for heads of
state when travelling overseas.
However, long-time Vietnam watcher, Carl Thayer of the Australian Defence Force Academy, says such a move
is unlikely.
"The last general secretary, Le Kha Phieu, tried it and failed. His faction pushed his idea strongly but it met a very
negative reaction in the party," he told AFP.
Thayer says the more likely scenario is that Luong and Khai -- who has tended his resignation at least twice since
taking up the position in 1997 -- will both be formally reappointed for another five-year term but will probably
stand down after three years.
Diplomats and analysts are in agreement though that the six ministers for planning and investment, justice, transport
and communications, construction, industry, and public health are likely to be replaced.
What is less certain is how much teeth the National Assembly will collectively show towards itself during the
session scheduled to last at least 20 days.
However, Mao, head of the parliament's bureaucracy, stressed the credentials of any of the 498 deputies -- of
which nearly 90 percent are Party members -- would be examined if complaints were lodged against them.
Some reports have said more than 90 of the elected legislators were targets of public complaints in the months
leading up to the May 19 one-horse polls.
"Any issues will be addressed in a democratic and transparent way because our policy is not to let anyone who
doesn't have adequate qualifications to be a representative of the people," Mao said.
Less controvercial is the expected approval given to plans for the government bureaucracy to be reduced from its
current 26 ministries and agencies to less than 20, a move likely to be welcomed by the donor community.
But even that comes with a caveat.
"The political lessons we have drawn from the past is that this kind of reform must be done in steps. We cannot do
it overnight," Mao said.
Agence France Presse - July 17, 2002.
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