Vietnam's prime minister wants to bow out
HANOI - Vietnam's prime minister Phan Van Khai wants to quit as soon as possible, a few days after leaving the ruling communist party's politburo, ending rumors he could stay few more months.
Khai, 72, "wants to give his position to his successor as soon as possible", the state-controlled Vietnam News Agency said late Friday, quoting Khai's spokesman, Nguyen Kinh Quoc.
Vietnam's deputy premier, Nguyen Tan Dung, 56, is expected to take over.
Dung has been groomed for the job for many years and last month became the number three in the party's powerful politburo -- the governing nerve centre of Vietnam.
Party officials then said he was the only real candidate for the position with virtually no political rivals.
Top government posts in the one-party state are recommended by the politburo but formally confirmed by the national assembly, which is due to meet for its next session from May 16 to June 29.
"The prime minister wants to hand over his post during the next National Assembly session in May, so that his successor can take over his new job, sign agreements with countries and ensure their enforcement," Quoc told the Tuoi Tre daily paper.
No direct confirmation could be immediately obtained on Saturday.
State media said the government has already prepared other "top-level reshuffles," including in ministries of defence, foreign affairs, interior, culture and information, and transport.
But the situation was still unclear regarding the post of president.
Reports did not mention whether president Tran Duc Luong, 68, who also left the politburo last month, would be replaced in May or later.
Theoretically, like Khai, he could stay on until the end of his five-year term, in July 2007.
Party chief Nong Duc Manh, 65, was re-appointed at the helm of one of the world's last remaining communist states during the 10th party congress last month.
Phan Van Khai was appointed prime minister in 1997 and has since continued the economic reforms called "Doi Moi" formally initiated in 1986. The country now aims to join the World Trade Organisation before the end of the year.
In 2005, he became the first Vietnamese prime minister to travel to the United states since the end of the war in 1975, marking years of improving ties between the two sides eager to bury the legacy of the conflict.
Recently, some Vietnamese sources had said Khai might stay on until next November, when the communist nation hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which US
President George W. Bush is expected to attend.
"A persistent rumor said Khai could stay on until the
APEC summit, but probably some people thought it was better to organize the transition now", a foreign observer said.
"The sooner the new team is in place, the better," he said.
Born in 1933 in Cu Chi, close to the former Saigon, and trained in the Soviet Union as with many of his generation's comrades, Khai is considered as a consistent reformer, willing to boost ties with the United States.
"Some people around him are pushing very much the interest of the US", the observer said.
His successor has a busy year ahead.
In addition to the WTO accession and the APEC summit to organize, Vietnam, which posted 8.4 percent economic growth last year, is aiming to create over one million jobs a year and will have to fight endemic corruption, which has raised public anger and cynicism in recent months.
Agence France Presse - May 6, 2006.
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