Revolution of the public sector

Fresh cuts: A fruit vendor walking past the Ministry of Information and Communications in Hanoi. Anxiety is mounting over the country’s potential vulnerability to tariffs under the new Trump administration— AFP

THE country is aiming to cut one in five public sector jobs and slash billions of dollars from government budgets, mirroring US President Donald Trump’s push to take a hatchet to spending.

The drive – due to go before the rubber-stamp parliament in the coming days – is creating unease in a communist country where working for the state long meant a job for life.