Reformer wins leadership in Vietnam

Nong Duc Manh's reputation for reform could attract foreign investments

In this story: New politburo State media silent Manh profile RELATED SITES

HANOI, Vietnam -- The election of a reform-minded chairman to the National Assembly has signaled a dramatic political shake-up in Vietnam.

Party sources say a new 150-member central committee has elected 61-year-old Nong Duc Manh, said to be a son of revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh, as its leader.

Manh would be the first member of a minority group to be party chief, replacing conservative Le Kha Phieu.

Manh initially turned down his nomination Tuesday morning but was elected to the top post in an internal party congress in the afternoon.

A Western diplomat quoted a party source as saying on Tuesday that the internal congress had voted to retain Tran Duc Luong as president, while Prime Minister Phan Van Khai would continue in his post until May 2002.

The diplomat's source also said Trade Minister Vu Khoan would take the deputy premier's post held by Nguyen Manh Cam.

Khoan negotiated a historic trade pact with Washington last year.

Party sources said Phieu was not among the ranks of the new central committee, signalling his effective retirement from mainstream politics.

New politburo

The committee also voted in a new 15-member elite politburo, retaining 11 of the previous 18.

The four new members are Truong Quang Duoc, head of the party's mass mobilization body; former labor minister Nguyen Dinh Hoan; Culture and Information Minister Nguyen Khoa Diem; and Le Hong Anh, deputy head of the party's control commission.

Pham Van Tra, the defense minister reprimanded in March for mismanagement, was retained.

His rival Pham Thanh Ngan was dropped along with Nguyen Thi Xuan My, the old politburo's only female member.

State media silent

The political shake-up had gone unreported in the state press, but the news has filtered down to many ordinary people through the party apparatus and via foreign news reports on the internet.

The decisions on the leadership are to be rubber-stamped by a formal public session of the 1,170-delegate party congress due to open in Hanoi on Thursday and to run through until Sunday.

In the past, about a third of the outgoing central committee and the politburo have retired at each congress. The previous central committee had 170 seats.

The congress is due to approve a political report and a 10-year socio-economic development plan backed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, laying out ambitious growth targets dependent on faster economic reform.

Manh profile

Manh has been widely rumored to be an illegitimate son of communist Vietnam's founding father Ho Chi Minh, a suggestion he has not specifically denied.

As a member of the Tay minority his promotion is seen as helping to resolve ethnic discontent after anti-government protests in February, the worst to hit the country in years.

Diplomats said Manh's election would send a positive message to the outside world that Vietnam is ready for bureacucratic and legal reform, and help attract foreign investments.

They said retaining Phieu, who had been accused of misusing the intelligence apparatus to defend his position, would have had the opposite effect.

Phieu was also criticized for too many concessions with China on border agreements.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Vietnam Communist Party
Free Vietnam Alliance

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