Vietnam’s top leader To Lam expands power, new PM elected

HANOI – Vietnam’s lawmakers on April 7 unanimously elected Communist Party general secretary To Lam as the country’s state president for the next five years, making him the most powerful Vietnamese leader in decades.

The widely anticipated move marks a break from Vietnam’s traditional collective leadership system, consolidating authority in one figure in ways that analysts say could tilt the one-party state towards greater authoritarianism, while also enabling faster decision-making, similar to its neighbour China.

The Parliament said on its website that all 495 deputies present at the National Assembly session on April 7 endorsed the Communist Party’s nomination, while five lawmakers were absent.

Officials said the nominations for top state leadership posts were finalised in a meeting in late March. 

Mr Lam, the former head of public security, now has a double mandate to rule the country for the next five years, after he secured a second term as general secretary in January.

In another largely expected move on April 7, Parliament unanimously elected Mr Le Minh Hung as the country’s new prime minister.

After the vote, Mr Lam told deputies in a televised address that it was an honour to hold both posts and pledged “a new growth model with science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation as the primary driving forces”.

He said his top priorities were to maintain stability, promote rapid and sustainable national development and improve “all aspects of people’s lives”.

Dr Le Hong Hiep, senior fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said: “Concentrating greater power in To Lam’s hands could pose risks to Vietnam’s political system, such as increased authoritarianism.”

However, such consolidation “could enable Vietnam to formulate and implement policies more quickly and effectively”, supporting growth, he added.

The combination of the two roles “will shift Vietnam’s domestic politics to a new normal where most of the old assumptions about Vietnam’s politics, including those about collective leadership, are no longer valid”, said Dr Alexander Vuving of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in the US.

Mr Lam held both posts for a period of a few months following the death in 2024 of the late party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

Even after relinquishing the state presidency in favour of army general Luong Cuong, Mr Lam often acted as if he had retained the role, travelling extensively and representing the country in meetings with foreign leaders.

Reformist, backs national champions

In his first stint as party chief, the 68-year-old launched sweeping economic reforms designed to make Vietnam more competitive, which drew both praise and criticism.

After his reappointment as party chief, Mr Lam vowed to pursue double-digit growth through a new development model that was less reliant on low-cost manufacturing, long the backbone of Vietnam’s export-driven boom and led by foreign multinationals.

His moves have at times unsettled the administration and businesses, but he has shown a pragmatic flexibility in executing them.

He has backed the expansion of private conglomerates, but before his reappointment, also issued a directive emphasising the leading role of state-owned enterprises in a bid to reassure party traditionalists.

Foreign investors, a key component of Vietnam’s export-reliant economy, have often praised the country’s political stability and see Mr Lam as a pro-business leader.

However, his backing of national champions and push for breakneck growth have raised concerns among some about favouritism, corruption risks, asset bubbles and waste.

In foreign policy, he has maintained Vietnam’s “Bamboo Diplomacy” and sought to balance relations with major powers while expanding international partnerships.

“Lam’s double-hat would not signal any changes in Vietnam’s foreign policy, even if there are concerns that Vietnam is concentrating more power in a single individual,” said Dr Khang Vu, a visiting scholar at Boston College.

Newly elected Prime Minister Hung, 55, served as central bank governor from 2016 to 2020, becoming the youngest person to hold the post.

He replaces Mr Pham Minh Chinh, 67, who presided over a fast-expanding economy during his five-year term, and was one of Vietnam’s most visible leaders, both at home and abroad, thanks to frequent overseas trips and participation in international summits.

Mr Hung has kept a low profile in his roles at the party and the central bank.

Though he was not formally trained as an economist, his nomination is seen by some officials as an attempt to inject economic expertise into the top layers of the administration, which has been dominated by politicians with security backgrounds.

In his post-election address to lawmakers, Mr Hung pledged to pursue sustainable growth and do his best to meet the party’s ambitious annual economic growth goal of at least 10 per cent until 2030.

He has no personal background in security, but his family is closely linked to the ministry Mr Lam once led: Mr Hung’s father was public security minister, and his two brothers are generals of security forces. REUTERS