Vietnam's Communist Party was set yesterday to elect its elite Politburo and a new set of leaders who will face the task of reining in corruption while driving the country's economic growth.
The country's ruling regime was likely to see a shake-up in the top leadership, with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, 72, and President Tran Duc Luong, 68, widely expected to step down to make way for younger leaders.
General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, 65, who was chosen during the last party congress, was expected to retain his post as the head of the Communist Party.
But party insiders have said the positions of president and prime minister -- which must be formally confirmed by the National Assembly -- were likely to be filled by two emerging leaders from the southern part of the country.
The 160 members of the Central Committee, newly elected on Sunday, were scheduled to vote for the 15 to 17 members of the Politburo, the party's innermost circle of leaders, as well as the general secretary later in the day.
State-run newspapers yesterday ran front-page photos of the nearly 1,200 delegates to the congress lining up to drop ballots for committee members into glass boxes. It was the first time that delegates were allowed to nominate candidates for general secretary.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, 56, from southern Ca Mau province, has long been seen as Khai's heir apparent for the job of prime minister. A 20-year veteran in the army and a former head of Vietnam's State Bank, he has been in his current post since 1997.
The leading candidate being talked about for the post of president is Nguyen Minh Triet, 64, of southern Binh Duong Province, who has been the Communist Party chief in southern Ho Chi Minh City since 2000.
Triet has widely been seen as a reformer who has nurtured booming growth in the country's economic engine.
The new leadership will be formally announced today at the closing of the eight-day party congress, held once every five years.
If the two southerners are chosen, it would mark the first time that Vietnam has strayed from a longtime formula that kept the top three positions evenly distributed between the north, central and southern parts of the country. Manh is from northern Bac Can Province.
Vietnam's new leaders will face the challenge of keeping the country on its path of economic reforms while uprooting the deep-seated corruption that threatens to derail it.
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS