Vietnam's ruling party chides leaders, signals reform

HANOI, (REUTERS) - Vietnam's ruling Communist Party has promised economic reforms and a restructuring of state firms and the banking system after a top-level meeting that criticised senior members, thought to include Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, but left them in post.

The country's banks are swimming in bad debt, much of it owed by the huge state enterprises at the heart of the economy.

Moody's downgraded Vietnam last month and said bank reforms should be implemented quickly.

The central committee, the powerful body of more than 170 senior members of the Communist Party of Vietnam, "came to the decision not to discipline the collective of the Political Bureau and a comrade member of the Political Bureau", the party said in a statement on its website late on Monday.