The Daily Populous Wednesday April 15th, 2026 morning edition
Authored by apnews.com and submitted by Naurgul

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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam unanimously elected Communist Party General Secretary To Lam as president for a five-year term, consolidating his control over both the party and the state.

The move departs from Vietnam’s tradition of shared leadership, in which the jobs have typically been held by different people, and echoes power structures in China under Xi Jinping and neighboring Laos.

It has been widely expected since Lam’s reelection as Communist Party head in January, when observers noted that his consolidation of party authority positioned him to assume the presidency as well.

Former central bank governor Le Minh Hung was elected as the country’s prime minister for the next five years.

After being sworn in, the 69-year-old told the National Assembly that his top priority was to maintain peace and stability, which were the foundation for fast and sustainable growth. “We aim to improve people’s livelihoods so all can share the benefits of development,” he said.

This is To Lam’s second time holding both jobs, after briefly doing so in 2024 when his predecessor as party chief, Nguyen Phu Trong, died.

The concentration of power was significant since it meant that Lam had a “stronger mandate and far more political room to push through his agenda than any leaders” since the 1980s, when Hanoi launched reforms to shed a state-run economy in favor of a market-oriented one open to foreigners, said Nguyen Khac Giang, of Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute research center.

“The opportunity is obvious. Faster decision-making, greater policy coherence, and a better chance of pushing difficult reforms at a pivotal moment. But the risk is that concentration of power can move faster than institutional reform,” he said.

Lam’s rise to the top caps the ascent of a career policeman who advanced from Vietnam’s security services to the top of the political system. This was aided by a sweeping anti-corruption campaign launched by his predecessor, which he oversaw as head of the Ministry of Public Security.

As party chief, Lam has led Vietnam’s biggest bureaucratic overhaul since the 1980s, cutting jobs, merging ministries, redrawing provincial boundaries and advancing major infrastructure projects.

He has focused on economic performance and private-sector growth, aiming to move Vietnam beyond the labor- and export-driven model that has helped lift millions from poverty and build a manufacturing-based middle class. The country is targeting 10% or higher annual economic growth over each of the next five years.

Hung, the new prime minister, said that the 10% growth target is meant to help achieve the country’s strategic goals and that the government had identified “strengthening science, technology, innovation and digital transformation as top priorities.”

But challenges remain, especially the immediate task of turning this ambitious vision into reality with the world economy upended by the energy shock from the war in Iran. Vietnam’s economy expanded at an annualized rate of 7.8% in the first three months of the year, up from 7.1% last year but below the 9.1% target and slower than in late 2025.

Giang said that Lam also faces political hurdles for reform buy-in and the challenge of maintaining Vietnam’s pragmatic approach to foreign policy.

Vietnam is facing U.S. pressure over its trade surplus but also has to balance ties with China, its largest trading partner and rival claimant in the South China Sea.

“It has benefited from a careful balancing strategy in foreign policy, but maintaining that position will become harder in a more turbulent world,” he said.

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Psychological-Flow55 on April 14th, 2026 at 21:44 UTC »

To the debate about marxism and capitalism on here, and the vietnamese expirence.

To a degree Vietnam is still marxist culturally with the state restrictions on relgion, and pushing atheism , as well as state control of certain sectors, and we still see from time to time purges of the party (often releated to corruption trails)

On the other hand it moved somewhat away from marxism as it pushes state capitalism, very similar to Putin's Russia, Xi's China, Orban era Hungary, Al-sisi Egypt (to be fair in Egypt case it a militarized version of state capitalism), Turkey under Erodgan, Singapore, the UAE since MBZ rise, Saudi Arabia since MBS rise , Qatar, etc.

As well as opening up the market a bit away from socialist economics by allowing private stands at markets, private shops and business, allowing some foreign investments, bot having any insane ideas like failed 5 year planning mechanism (atleast in recent times), like the enterprise law of 2005 basically legalized private businesses to be profitable.

Bullboah on April 14th, 2026 at 17:18 UTC »

If anyone wants a TLDR:

-Communist party was already in power - this just means the same guy will lead the party and the country, consolidating power.

-Vietnam is not really a “communist” economy, since it switched to a market system in the 80s (because actual communism didn’t work)

-Their current model is already similar to China. The Communist party runs the country in a non-communist way (but still a lot more centrally planned than most other countries). A lot more accurately described as authoritarian states than communist ones, imo. (Though AFAIK Vietnam is significantly less authoritarian than China, though I’m no expert by any means).

Naurgul on April 14th, 2026 at 17:18 UTC »

Submission statement:

In the past the roles of the party general secretary and president were separate in Vietnam. Now they are consolidated into one person. This move is reminiscent of similar centralised power structures that exist in China and Laos. The new president / general secretary now has a mandate and the political capital necessary to implement massive reforms. In his previous role as general secretary he led Vietnam’s biggest bureaucratic overhaul since the 1980s, cutting jobs, merging ministries, redrawing provincial boundaries and advancing major infrastructure projects, focusing on economic performance and private-sector growth.