HANOI - Vietnamese President To Lam was named on Saturday to the country’s top position, general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, succeeding Nguyen Phu Trong, who died two weeks ago.
Lam, 67, had temporarily taken on the party chief’s duties on July 18, a day before Trong’s death, as his health deteriorated.
Party delegates unanimously supported Lam’s nomination, officials told a press conference.
Addressing the delegates, he vowed to inherit and promote Trong’s legacy, make no changes to foreign policy, with a focus on achieving its socioeconomic development goals and continuing a campaign against graft.
“In the coming time, the work on anti-corruption will be continued fiercely,” Lam told the press conference. “Personally I feel fortunate that I have much experience in handling anti-graft campaign during the time I worked at the police ministry.”
Vietnam, a major destination for manufacturing investment, has long been favoured by multinational corporations for its political stability, but experienced major turbulence in recent months that officials said was fuelled by the anti-graft effort.
The country does not formally have a paramount leader, but the head of the party has a more prominent role than others, after Trong beefed up its power during his 13-year tenure.
Lam, a career security officer, had been seen as long aiming to become party chief, with experts calling the presidency a stepping stone for the top job.
“It is a sign of a temporary halt of internal fighting within the party,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnam expert at the Singapore think tank the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
“Although Lam vowed to push forward the anti-corruption campaign, the campaign may slow down a little as he may prioritise stabilising the party system before the party congress in 2026.”
It was not immediately clear whether Lam would retain both top jobs until the legislative session ends in 2026, or whether a new president would be chosen.
Lam was elected president in May after leading the sweeping campaign of high-profile investigations against corruption as police minister. He replaced Vo Van Thuong, who had been in the job about a year when he quit amid accusations of unspecified wrongdoing.
If Lam retains both jobs, he may boost his powers and possibly adopt a more autocratic leadership style, officials have said, similar to that of Xi Jinping, who is China’s party chief and state president.
That would be a change for Vietnam, which, unlike its far larger neighbour, has engaged in more collective decision-making, with leaders subject to multiple checks.
US maintains ‘non-market economy’ tag
In a related development, the US Commerce Department announced on Friday it would continue to classify Vietnam as a non-market economy, a decision disappointing to Hanoi, which Washington has been wooing in its efforts to push back against China.
Vietnam has long sought an upgrade, which would have reduced the punitive anti-dumping duties levied on non-market economies marked by heavy state influence. Only 12 other economies are labelled as non-market by Washington, including China, Russia, North Korea and Azerbaijan.
A change in status has been opposed by US steelmakers, Gulf Coast shrimpers and honey farmers and members of the US Congress representing them, but backed by retailers and some other business groups.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade said upgrading Vietnam would have been an objective and fair move.
“Vietnam regrets that despite several positive improvements in the Vietnamese economy recently, the US Department of Commerce still has not recognised Vietnam as a market economy country,” it said in a statement.
Vietnam has long argued it should be freed of the non-market label because of recent economic reforms, and it has said that retaining the moniker is bad for increasingly close two-way ties that Washington sees as a counterbalance to China.
Opponents of an upgrade have countered that Hanoi’s policy commitments have not been matched by concrete actions and it still operates as a planned economy governed by the Communist Party. They say Vietnam is increasingly being used as a manufacturing hub by Chinese firms to circumvent US curbs on imports from China.