Vietnam takes a new political
direction By Karl D John
HANOI - One year after his appointment,
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has
fully consolidated his control over government and
the country's reform direction. Last month, the
57-year-old leader was re-elected by 97% of the
votes of the Communist Party congress, and he
immediately put his personal stamp of authority on
government by naming two additional deputy prime
ministers and streamlining the ministerial
structure from 26 to 22 positions.
He also
moved to appoint a new central-bank chief and nine
new ministers, while also reconfirming 12
incumbent ministers. The
newly ratified cabinet is
considerably younger than its predecessor, and
Dung told the National Assembly that the
restructuring was meant to "unify and modernize"
government. The new team will be charged with
maintaining the momentum behind Vietnam's
economic-reform program, which has contributed
positively to the country's recent rapid economic
growth.
The two new deputy prime ministers
both have solid economic credentials, one holding
a master's degree in economics and the other a
university professor of the same subject.
Crucially, Dung maintained the geographical
division inside his government's top spots, with
two deputies from the communist-stronghold
northern regions, one from the central area, and
two from the decidedly more capitalist south,
where Dung himself hails from. With the reins of
the State Bank now in the hands of a southerner,
some analysts anticipate that this economic team
will be more business-friendly than its
predecessor.
Le Dang Doanh, a senior
economic adviser to the previous prime minister,
commented after the reshuffle that the younger,
well-trained cabinet will send out positive
signals to foreign investors.
"The big
challenges for the new cabinet are to harness the
increasing inflation and help increase the
competitiveness of the economy," he said.
Il Houng Lee, the senior resident
representative of the International Monetary Fund
in Vietnam, said: "The reshuffle of the cabinet is
only one step of administrative reforms -
implementation of the government's policies. Still
needed is comprehensive reform at various levels."
In that direction, Dung also vowed that
his administration will "seriously correct
weaknesses and errors", including the growing
corruption that threatens the viability of
government-backed administrative reforms. Some
political observers believe the recent ministerial
appointments were designed by Dung to break up
corrupt arrangements maintained by certain former
ministers. The same corruption-busting analysis
applies to his decision to reduce the number of
ministerial posts.
At the recent fourth
session of the Central Steering Committee on
Corruption Prevention and Control, of which Dung
serves as director, he said, "Corruption must and
will be stamped out from Vietnam." True to those
words, a week after giving his swearing-in speech
at the National Assembly, a court in Hanoi
sentenced a former high-ranking government
official attached to the Transport Ministry to 13
years in prison for his part in a high-profile
gambling and bribery scandal.
The former
director of a unit responsible for building
highways and other transport infrastructure was
convicted by the court of betting nearly
US$750,000 on European soccer matches, was ordered
to pay a cash fine of $65,000, and was sentenced
to six years in prison on gambling charges and
seven years for attempted bribery. Eight other
people were also convicted for their role in the
gambling ring. The scandal last year forced the
transport minister to resign and also resulted in
his deputy's arrest.
How deep corruption
has reached throughout the Communist Party-led
system is anybody's guess. What is clear is that
Dung, trained as a lawyer, understands the
potential political implications of runaway
corruption on his appointed government's popular
legitimacy. During his speech at the National
Assembly, Dung also said, "The greatest and most
exciting challenge ... will be for the government
to build a strong, transparent administration that
is devoid of red tape, corruption and
wastefulness."
Civilizing the
bureaucracy In that direction, Dung's
government has issued a number of directives aimed
at modernizing and professionalizing the
bureaucracy, including new bans on smoking and
drinking, establishing altars and holding
religious ceremonies, and using telephones for
personal use in government offices.
In a
move aimed at instilling accountability and
transparency, officials must wear photo name-cards
while on duty and have been given stern directions
not to use profanity or to collect parking fees
from people who visit government offices. In an
unusual act of government openness, Dung recently
hosted an online chat forum, where he answered
questions from the public about himself and even
touchy topics such as government corruption.
Dung's government is also in places
loosening long-held state controls, particularly
those governing foreign organizations. A recently
issued regulation abolished cumbersome procedures
associated with licensing foreign organizations
and media agencies aiming to establish offices in
Vietnam. Similar reforms will no longer require
foreign organizations to apply for state
permission when releasing media communiques or
information over the Internet, printing documents,
leaflets or news articles, or publicizing news on
public electronic screens.
The Ministry of
Construction, meanwhile, is seeking government
approval for a plan to sell houses to six groups
of foreign individuals and organizations on a
trial basis, which would be implemented in Hanoi
and Ho Chi Minh City over the next three to five
years. More symbolically, the Communist Party is
even flirting with the idea of hosting the 2008
Miss Universe beauty pageant, with the president
of the organization recently scouting for
locations in Nha Trang, Da Lat, and Hanoi.
World Bank president Robert Zoellick
wrapped up his two-day visit to Vietnam by saying.
"Vietnam has the potential to be one of the great
success stories in development. It has already
achieved one of the fastest improvements in living
standards in the world, with a great reduction in
poverty." He also said that with the benefits of
trade and reforms, Vietnam is on pace to become a
middle-income country by 2010.
All of this
and more rely on Dung maintaining a political
consensus behind his economic-liberalization
program. Compared with previous prime ministers,
who often reclusively blended into the woodwork of
the larger party apparatus, Dung is in comparison
cutting a more charismatic and global profile.
Political observers say Dung is deliberately
taking center stage to signal global leaders and
investors that he is in total control of his
government - which wasn't always apparent with
previous post-revolution Vietnamese
administrations, which were run more by committee.
Dung's performance was widely applauded in
Vietnam's successful hosting of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation meeting in Hanoi last
November, where 21 global leaders were in
attendance. He has since reached out to Vietnam's
Southeast Asian neighbors through visits to
Singapore, Myanmar, Brunei, Indonesia and the
Philippines.
Dung made a particularly
noteworthy visit to the Vatican and met with the
pope, the first Vietnamese leader to do so since
Hanoi pronounced itself an atheistic state and
severed diplomatic ties with the religious
mini-state in 1975. He is now also lobbying for a
temporary seat on the United Nations Security
Council and, in a historical irony, has even
offered to play peacemaker through hosting talks
between the United States and North Korea in
Vietnam.
As the first Vietnamese leader
born after revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, Dung
is widely recognized as the youngest prime
minister ever to serve a Communist Party-led
government. One year into his term, and with many
nettlesome reform issues in the pipeline, Dung so
far has proved himself to be the progressive
leader many Vietnamese and foreigners had hoped he
would be on his elevation to the premiership.
Karl D John is chief executive
officer of The TCK Group (www.tckgroup.org), a
Vietnam-based investment consulting group. He has
more than a decade of involvement with Vietnam and
lives in Hanoi.
(Copyright 2007 Asia
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