Reformers chosen to as Vietnam's leaders
HANOI - Three decades after the communist north reunited the country with its victory in the Vietnam War, reformers from the business-oriented south were named prime minister and president Tuesday.
Nguyen Tan Dung, 56, became Vietnam's youngest prime minister since reunification in 1975. He had long been groomed for the job, building a record of fostering growth in recent years while having responsibility for the economy as deputy prime minister.
The lawmaking National Assembly also endorsed the nominee for president, Nguyen Minh Triet, 63, the Communist Party chief for Ho Chi Minh City who is known for his tough stance against corruption.
Both were the sole candidates in the collective-leadership style of this communist-ruled country, and each got more than 90 percent of the vote.
"This is an honor, but also a heavy responsibility the party and people assigned to me," Triet said in accepting the largely ceremonial post of president.
As prime minister, Dung will oversee the day-to-day workings of the government, but the country's most powerful position is the Communist Party chief. A northerner, Nong Duc Manh, 65, was re-elected party leader in April.
Vietnam's leadership has been reorganizing to bring in younger members, and the two new leaders both hail from the more open and industrious south, where they have experience dealing with Western and regional investors and leaders.
Among their first tasks will be serving as hosts for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hanoi in November and ushering Vietnam into the
World Trade Organization, expected later this year.
The government, isolated and poverty-stricken after the Vietnam War ended, began reforms in the mid-1980s to move toward a market economy. Foreign investment and trade have exploded in recent years, and businesses now thrive throughout the country of 84 million people.
"They've finished a great first half, and the next team has got to come on and complete it," said Carlyle Thayer, an expert on Vietnamese politics at the Australian Defense Force Academy. "There's no further big goals for Vietnam to achieve other than being successful."
The ease in the shift to younger leaders reflects the relative lack of personal power in the outgoing generation. No Vietnamese politician has led a powerful personality cult since the death of widely revered revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh in 1969.
Dung, a former central bank governor from southernmost Ca Mau province, has a military background that dates to age 12 when he was a messenger for the Viet Cong guerillas fighting U.S.-backed South Vietnam. He later battled American troops during the war.
Dung climbed the communist ranks to become party chief in Kien Giang province in the late 1980s and was appointed deputy prime minister in 1997. He also served as the central bank governor from 1998 to 1999, when the country's banking system was in turmoil.
Probably most important, in recent years he has been overseeing the economy, which has posted Southeast Asia's highest growth rate of roughly 7.5 percent a year.
"I would like to do my utmost, together with the government and the political system, to sustain the strength of the whole nation and to accelerate the comprehensive renewal process," Dung said in his acceptance speech.
He said fighting corruption, waste and bureaucracy were among his top priorities.
Triet, from Binh Duong province, spent most of his time during the Vietnam War promoting communist ideals to young people. He was appointed party chief of southern Song Be province in 1992 and helped build the largely farm province into an attractive spot for foreign investors.
He was appointed in 2000 as party chief for Ho Chi Minh City, the former capital of South Vietnam.
Three years later, a notorious mafia boss was put on trial in the country's biggest criminal case. It involved 155 defendants and brought down police officers and high-ranking government officials as part of a continuing campaign to root out rampant corruption.
"Over the past years, the renewal process was initiated and our party has recorded great achievements," Triet said. "However, there are a lot of difficulties and challenges lying ahead of us."
The National Assembly cleared the way for the new guard over the weekend by approving the resignations of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, 72, President Tran Duc Luong, 69, and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Van An, 69.
That development had been expected since April, when the Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo did not re-elect the three leaders.
By Margie Mason - The Associated Press - June 27, 2006.
New PM and president take over in Vietnam
HANOI - Vietnam chose a new prime minister and president in a generational leadership change for the communist country heading fast into an era of closer integration with the world economy
The sweeping reshuffle puts in charge two politicians from the south, the country's industrial growth engine, who are party loyalists but have voiced support for speeding up a two-decade-old process of market reforms.
Nguyen Tan Dung took over as premier from veteran leader Phan Van Khai, 72, who retired last weekend after nine years on the job during which Dung served as his deputy and understudy in charge of economic and security affairs.
Dung is seen as a politically conservative all-rounder, with police and army experience and stints as state bank chief and deputy public security minister under his belt. At 56, he is post-war Vietnam's youngest prime minister.
He vowed Tuesday to "develop (Vietnam) in a sustainable way, pull the country out of backwardness... fight corruption, waste and bureaucracy, and meet the aspirations and wishes of the party, the army and the people."
Dung also pledged to follow revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh's belief that "civil servants are the servants of the people" and gave a comrade's embrace to Khai, party chief Nong Duc Manh and other senior party men.
Nguyen Minh Triet, 63, the party boss in the commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, was earlier appointed to the presidency in an assembly vote to replace Tran Duc Luong, who also just retired aged 69.
A trained mathematician with a career politician's easy manner, Triet is popular with the foreign business community and is expected to bring a more hands-on approach to the largely ceremonial post.
He vowed Tuesday to "bring the spirit of reform to national development, with my experience as the leader of the most dynamic city in the country."
Both men were chosen in a carefully choreographed political ritual in the one-party state, months after they were anointed by regime elders at a party congress. There were no other candidates in Tuesday's votes.
In the reshuffle, the assembly also chose Hanoi party chief and old-school ideologue Nguyen Phu Trong, 62, as its new chairman on Monday.
Some observers saw the choice of northerner Trong as an attempt to balance the presence of the two more reformist leaders from the south, a region that has never been so well represented in post-war Vietnamese politics.
The 496-member assembly was Wednesday due to allow the ministers of foreign affairs, defence, finance, transport, education, and culture and information, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan, to leave their posts, said Dung.
It was scheduled to vote on their replacements the same day.
The changes come in a busy year for the country which in May signed a crucial trade deal with the United States that all but paved the way for Vietnam's accession to the World Trade Organisation in the coming months.
Vietnam hopes to be the 150th WTO member by the time it hosts an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November, expected to bring leaders from Washington, Beijing, Tokyo and across Asia.
Both WTO accession and the
APEC summit "represent a new chapter for Vietnam's development," Vietnam specialist Carl Thayer of the Australian Defence Force Academy told ABC Radio Australia this week.
"I think (Khai) thought it would be better if he resigned to hand over responsibility to a younger member who will in fact have stewardship over the next five years," Thayer said.
Dung is set to reap the rewards of the Khai government's achievements, including normalised US ties and economic growth that hit 8.4 percent in 2005, one of the world's highest rates.
But his new team also faces new challenges in the coming WTO era when they must reform Vietnam's legal and business environment, and strengthen state-owned and inefficient enterprises against foreign competition.
By Frank Zeller - Agence France Presse - June 27, 2006.
Vietnam installs younger premier, pushes change
HANOI - Economic reformer and career security officer Nguyen Tan Dung took over on Tuesday as Vietnam Prime Minister to govern the communist-run country in a period of accelerated growth and deepening international ties.
Top of a younger generation coming to power, Dung's confirmation on Tuesday by an open session of the one-party parliament made him, at 56, the youngest prime minister since the communists unified Vietnam in 1975 at the end of the U.S. war.
Dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt and light blue tie, dark-haired bespectacled Dung told deputies that he wanted to help "bring our country out of backwardness and march forward together with other countries."
Corruption dogs the ruling Communist Party and in Dung's first speech to the assembly as premier he confirmed replacement of the transport minister, whose agency was caught in a multi-million dollar graft scandal earlier this year.
Other changes such as foreign affairs, defense and finance will be made later this week as part of a government reshuffle.
High-profile Dung, groomed for the job over eight years as deputy prime minister to outgoing Phan Van Khai, 72, spoke of the need to "push up economic reforms, build a law-based society and an administration clean and close to the people."
He takes office with Vietnam leading Southeast Asia in economic growth, poised to join the
World Trade Organization in October and balancing friendships with global powers -- its former enemies the United States and northern neighbor China.
Reform advocate
Born in the southernmost province of Ca Mau, Dung came through party ranks as a security officer and an advocate of speeding up the 20-year-long process of economic liberalization.
Gross domestic product expanded 8.4 percent last year and was targeted at 8 percent this year. But Vietnam remains poor with per capita annual income of just $640 and most of its 83 million people make a living from agriculture.
The National Assembly also confirmed the appointment of Nguyen Minh Triet, 63, party chief in the commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, as the country's new president.
On Monday, Hanoi party leader Nguyen Phu Trong, 62, was chosen as chairman of the Assembly in an era of legal reforms.
The younger leaders of one of the few communist governments in the world will be on an international stage for the first time in November when Hanoi hosts the summit of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (
APEC) forum.
Vietnam expert Thomas Vallely said Dung could prove to be the right man as the party's consensus policy-making may need to change for the country to modernize and compete globally.
"Amid impressive economic performance there is a tendency to become complacent and avoid making difficult decisions which can only result in powerful interests losing out," said Vallely, head of the Vietnam program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"There is good reason to expect that the new government led by Nguyen Tan Dung may prove capable of providing the decisive leadership needed," Vallely said.
The government changes were decided at April's five-yearly party National Congress but were being formalized by the assembly this week. Communist Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, 65, was re-appointed in April to a second five-year term to the most powerful post in the Vietnamese system.
By Grant McCool - Reuters - June 27, 2006.
Changing times for Vietnam politics
Earlier in this session of Vietnam's National Assembly, there had been talk of proposing more than one candidate for the posts of prime minister and president, and allowing the members to choose between them.
In the end, the Communist Party stamped its authority on the process. Its leadership chose the candidates which the Assembly then voted on.
For each position, members of the Assembly were given a voting paper with a single name on it and the question: "Do you vote in favour or against?"
The official results were almost unanimous - 92% for new Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and 94% for new President Nguyen Minh Triet.
Popular choices
The two men's paths to power were assured at the Communist Party Congress, held at the end of April.
In the elections to the Politburo they came third and fourth.
They were beaten only by the most powerful man in the country - the Secretary General of the Communist Party, Nong Duc Manh - and the Public Security Minister Le Hong Anh.
Their success reflects a genuine popularity among the party's activists.
Mr Triet [pronounced chee-yet] has a reputation as a strong campaigner against corruption.
While head of the Communist Party in the country's business capital Ho Chi Minh City, he led a campaign against the gangster known as Nam Cam which also brought down many local politicians and officials.
He is also a supporter of greater economic liberalisation.
Vietnam's economy is growing at more than 7% per year, but some analysts argue it could grow much faster if more state industries were privatised and restrictive rules and regulations were removed.
In contrast to his predecessor, Mr Triet is expected to take a more active role in politics, using the prestige of his position to win support for more business-friendly policies.
Mr Dung [pronounced zu-ung] is also seen as an economic reformer.
He has had a very rapid rise to power - 10 years ago he was the youngest person ever elected to the Politburo.
He worked his way up through the internal security apparatus before becoming head of the Central Bank and most recently one of three deputy prime ministers.
Mr Dung is regarded as an effective political operator, something which is vital for a prime minister in Vietnam who will have to bring different factions within the ruling party together if he is to have any success.
Challenges ahead
For the first time since the country was unified after the end of the war 30 years ago, the country's head of state and government are both from the south.
It is a sign of two things. Firstly, that the importance of the south - both as a source of economic growth but also talent and ideas - is increasing more and more. Business people there are pushing for ever greater deregulation.
It also suggests the Party is prepared to appoint those it considers the best people for the job - without the traditional efforts to balance appointments between the north, south and centre.
The two men are relatively young. The people they have replaced were in their late 60s and 70s.
Mr Triet is 63 and Mr Dung is only 56. They were in their 20s during the war against the United States, in their 30s under state socialism and in their 40s when Vietnam's economic reform programme known as Doi Moi began in 1986.
In other words they were educated in very different times to today - politically and economically.
They also experienced the crisis which forced Vietnam to open up to the world and recognise that, even for a communist state, international economic integration is now the only alternative to the isolation suffered by North Korea or the underdevelopment endured by neighbouring Laos.
Politics in Vietnam is driven by consensus, and it is the Communist Party which forms that consensus and the government which implements its policies.
However, the two men will have considerable influence in how those policies are decided.
They will have to use all their political skills to overcome resistance from those in the Party who object to further privatisations and deregulation.
They are under pressure to tackle corruption and reduce inequality - two consequences of economic growth running at over 7% a year.
They will also have to respond to demands for greater accountability and openness in politics and society more widely. It will be a challenge.
By Bill Hayton - BBC News - June 27, 2006.
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