Hanoi (AsiaNews) – The 11th Congress of the Vietnam Communist Party unanimously elected the official slate of candidates to the new central committee (pictured). About 1,400 delegates chose 175 members, plus 25 alternate members, who will fill top party and government posts.
Nguyen Phu Trong, 66, is expected to be the new general secretary of the Communist Party. Currently the speaker of the National Assembly, Trong is the party's chief Marxist theorist but is considered a moderate.
Truong Tan Sang, 62, the party's No. 2, is expected to become president later this year, and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is widely expected to retain his job.
Now the task of new leadership will be to implement the decision of the congress, “a great political event of our country, a new milestone in our revolutionary process under the Party’s leadership,” to Nhan Dan, the Communist Party’s newspaper, wrote.
The congress will continue “strengthening the Party’s leadership capacity and combativeness, promoting the comprehensive strength of the entire nation, comprehensively stepping up the renewal and creating a foundation for Vietnam to basically become a modern industrial country by 2020.”