Party intrigue deepens as reformer Dung manoeuvres onto list of candidates for Vietnam’s top job at last minute
Dung is favoured by the business community, which feels he will continue the economic reforms that have helped Vietnam attract a flood of foreign investment and helped triple the per capita GDP over the past 10 years.
Supporters of Vietnam’s prime minister have nominated him for a key Communist Party panel, a necessary step to contesting the post of the party chief, in a last-minute manoeuvre to secure the top job in the country.
Delegates at a Communist Party congress nominated Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to the Central Committee in what amounts to open defiance of the party chief, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who for years has been trying to sideline Dung.
His nomination was announced by Vu Ngoc Hoang, a Central Committee member and deputy chair of the party’s propaganda and education commission, state-run newspaper Tuoi Tre reported on Sunday.
The move, while not completely unexpected, exposed the deep division between Trong and Dung. It was all the more striking as it was revealed during the ongoing party congress to choose the new general secretary and other leaders in the Politburo, the collective leadership that will govern Vietnam for the next five years.
Dung is favoured by the business community, which feels that he will continue the economic reforms in the country at the same pace that have helped Vietnam attract a flood of foreign investment and helped triple the per capita GDP to US$2,100 over the past 10 years. He is also seen as more solid in standing up to neighbouring China, which has been displaying aggressive territorial ambitions in the South China Sea. Trong on the other hand is a stolid, conservative party apparatchik, perceived as unimaginative on economic reforms and relatively soft on China.
