Vietnam’s To Lam gets another 5-year term as Communist Party chief

Vietnam’s top leader To Lam was reappointed on ‍Friday as head of the ruling Communist Party for the next five years after an uninimous 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 the country’s most powerful job by all 180 party officials from a newly formed committee at the end of the five-yearly party congress, according to an announcement at the party congress.In an address to the congress, Lam said he would maintain unity of the party and said there were huge tasks ahead.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 within the party, 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 telecoms 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, 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.