Steady leadership: Lam (second from right) holding the flowers he received after being re-elected at the headquarters of the Communist Party in Hanoi. — VNA/ AFP
The country’s top leader To Lam was re-appointed as head of the ruling Communist Party for the next five years after a unanimous vote by its central committee, as he pledged to turbocharge growth in the export-reliant nation.
In the one-party state, Lam was re-elected to Vietnam’s most powerful job by all 180 party officials from a newly formed committee at the end of a congress held every five years to set key targets and make leadership decisions.
Viewed as a bold reformist, before the vote Lam promised two-digit growth. Immediately after re-election, he told the congress he wanted a system based on “integrity, talent, courage and competence,” where performance is assessed against tangible results.
During his brief prior stint as party chief since mid-2024, Lam presided over fast growth underpinned by sweeping reforms that won him strong support but also criticism, as tens of thousands of civil servants lost their jobs while he promoted faster decision-making and less red tape.
Aware of the discontent stirred by those reforms, Lam moved early to secure support from rival factions, including the powerful military, according to officials familiar with the process.
As concerns mounted about his plans to bolster private conglomerates at the expense of state-owned firms, Lam issued a directive ahead of the party congress underscoring the “leading role” of state enterprises, which include army-controlled telecom and defence giant Viettel.
“He normally meticulously prepares for his moves,” said Le Hong Hiep, senior fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, noting that Lam, as state security minister, had manoeuvred deftly to reach the apex of Vietnam’s political system in 2024 when his late predecessor Nguyen Phu Trong was facing prolonged health issues.
In an address to the congress after his re-election, Lam, 68, said he would maintain party unity. He is also seeking to become Vietnam’s president, with a decision expected to be announced later.
Lam’s re-election as party chief sends a reassuring message to foreign investors who value political stability, Hiep said.
Hiep added, however, that Lam’s bid to combine the two top roles – a system resembling the model under Xi Jinping in China – “could pose risks to Vietnam’s political system,” which has traditionally depended on collective leadership and internal checks.
Earlier this week, Lam promised annual growth above 10% through the decade – an ambitious target which differs from World Bank forecasts of an average 6.5% yearly expansion this year and next.
Lam wants to achieve that by changing Vietnam’s growth model, which has hinged for decades on cheap labour and exports, turning the South-East Asian nation into a high-middle-income economy by 2030, thanks to a boost in innovation and efficiency. — Reuters
