Vietnam’s top leader To Lam expands power
Vietnam consolidated its control over both party and state by unanimously electing Communist Party General Secretary To Lam as president for a five-year term.
The move departs from Vietnam’s tradition of shared leadership, in which work is often undertaken by different people, and mirrors power structures under China’s Xi Jinping and neighboring Laos.
This had been widely expected since her re-election as head of the Communist Party in January, when observers said Lam’s consolidation of party authority put her in a position to assume the presidency as well.
Former central bank governor Le Minh Hung has been named the country’s prime minister for the next five years.
After taking the oath, the 69-year-old leader told the National Assembly that his top priority was to maintain peace and stability, which are the basis for rapid and sustainable growth.
“We aim to improve people’s livelihoods so that everyone can share the benefits of development,” he said.
This is To Lam’s second time holding both posts, after briefly assuming the post in 2024 when her predecessor, party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, died.
The concentration of power has been significant since the 1980s, when Hanoi introduced reforms to transform a state-run economy into a market-oriented economy open to foreigners, as it means Lam has “a stronger mandate than any other leader and much more political space to enact her agenda,” said Nguyen Khac Giang of Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute research centre. he said.
“The opportunity is clear. Faster decision-making, greater policy coherence and an increased chance of pushing difficult reforms at a critical moment. But the risk is that concentration of power may proceed faster than institutional reform,” he said.
Lam’s rise to the top represents the rise of a career police officer who worked his way from Vietnam’s security services to the top of the political system.
This was also helped by a sweeping anti-corruption campaign launched by his predecessor, whom he oversaw as head of the Ministry of Public Security.
As party chief, Lam led Vietnam’s biggest bureaucratic overhaul since the 1980s; layoffs, consolidation of ministries, redrawing state borders and advancing major infrastructure projects.
He focused on economic performance and private sector growth, aiming to move Vietnam beyond the labor- and export-oriented model that helped lift millions out of poverty and create a manufacturing-based middle class.
The country aims for annual economic growth of 10 percent or higher in each of the next five years.
