Vietnam’s To Lam vows to fight corruption, pledges 10% economic growth

The Communist Party leader is reportedly considering a dual role as party chief and Vietnam’s president.

Vietnam’s top leader To Lam has promised to fight corruption and boost annual economic growth to more than 10 percent for the remainder of the decade, as he addressed a gathering of the country’s governing Communist Party.

In a speech before a twice-a-decade party congress on Tuesday, the secretary-general stressed that “all wrongdoings must be dealt with”, while urging the party to pursue administrative reform and tackle “wastefulness and negativity” in government.

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Lam, 68, said Vietnam needed to cut red tape and expand global trade to protect its independence and national interests.

The weeklong congress, which started on Monday in the capital, Hanoi, will select a party chief, the country’s most powerful position, and set economic goals up to 2030.

According to reports, Lam is likely to retain his role as the party chief and seek the state presidency – a move that would create a dual role similar to that held by China’s Xi Jinping.

If he claims both top positions, he will have “the strongest mandate for the Vietnamese leadership since the end of the Vietnam War“, Nguyen Khac Giang of Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute told the AFP news agency.

Lam has already shocked the country with the pace of his reforms, which have also seen rivals being swept aside and his authority more centralised. Since coming into office 17 months ago, he has eliminated whole layers of government, abolishing eight ministries or agencies and cutting nearly 150,000 jobs from the state payroll, while pushing ambitious rail and power projects.

In his speech on Tuesday to almost 1,600 party delegates, Lam said their gathering was taking place amid “many overlapping difficulties and challenges, from natural disasters, storms and floods to epidemics, security risks, fierce strategic competition, and major disruptions in energy and food supply chains”.

The party is also “determined to fight corruption … considering the private sector is an important pillar of the economy”, he said.

“Infrastructure must be developed to adapt to climate change and ensure strong regional, interregional, and global connectivity,” he added.

A Communist Party submission to the congress set the annual economic growth goal at no less than 10 percent until 2030, according to a document reviewed by the Reuters news agency.

The state-run Viet Nam News reported that party documents presented at the congress called for strict enforcement of legal discipline as a means to “overcome chronic problems where the ‘law is sound but implementation is difficult'” and where there is “much talk, little action”, which had eroded public trust and wasted national resources.

The twice-a-decade national congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam is expected to select the party chief, the country’s most powerful position, and set economic goals up to 2030 [Handout/Vietnam News Agency via AFP]