The lingering question is whether any of the agenda-setting decisions at the congress will have any lasting, tangible effects on the country's fortunes.

The congress offered several major themes, outlined repeatedly in officials' speeches: fighting corruption, continued economic reforms, and expanding democracy.

But little in the way of clear, new directions was made public at the congress, despite its role as the ruling communists' most prominent political event, officially setting the policy course and leadership for the next five years.

The congress did announce a new 14-member Politburo, the elite body at the helm of the party's unchallenged power.

But even this announcement was shrouded in the kind of secrecy the Vietnamese communists are famed for. Biographical information on the membership is scarce. The party had said it would select 15 to 17 members, but offered no explanation for the smaller number.

And even the identities of the new prime minister and president, two of the three most powerful figures in Vietnam, remain officially unconfirmed.

Many ordinary Vietnamese say they didn't pay much attention to the congress just for this reason: you never know what to make of it. And of those who did, few are expecting any dramatic changes.

'Normally, there should be some changes when we have new leaders, but I don't expect there will be,' said one Hanoi man, who asked not to be named.

What is known is that Nong Duc Manh, 65, will serve another term as party general secretary - officially the top post in the Politburo. The Soviet-trained forest engineer, an ethnic minority Tay from the north, is widely seen as a centrist, adept at bridging the gap between the reformist and conservative wings of the party.

Of the remaining 13 Politburo members, the group is younger than before and seven are from the south, an unusually high proportion. Southern Vietnamese are typically seen as more pro-business and reformist than their northern counterparts, and two of them, Nguyen Tan Dung and Nguyen Minh Triet, are widely expected to become the prime minister and president respectively.

About half of the government's 23 ministerial positions may be filled by newcomers as a result of the congress's newly selected party central committee, the 160-member body immediately below the Politburo.

The oldest, hardline communist revolutionaries - those whose careers began fighting the colonial French more than half a century ago - are fading from the scene.

Add to this the state-controlled media's growing role in exposing corruption, and some see the potential for reforms to pick up pace.

Vietnam, which is posting steady growth of 7 to 8 per cent, appears poised to join the World Trade Organisation this year, and foreign businesspeople are increasingly playing it up as Asia's new investment hot spot.

But for now, its China-style reforms - economic freedom coupled with tight political control - appear to be on cruise control.