Vietnam parliament convenes to confirm new state leaders
Top leader To Lam, who was reaffirmed as the party's general secretary in January, is also widely expected to become president.
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HANOI: Lawmakers in Vietnam re-elected Tran Thanh Man as chairman of the National Assembly on Monday (Apr 6), giving him a second term as head of the country's top legislative body.
The appointment came as deputies opened a new session in which they will confirm other top state leaders, including the president and prime minister - posts already selected by the ruling Communist Party but not yet announced.
Top leader To Lam, who was reaffirmed as the party's general secretary in January, is also widely expected to become president.
His presidency would unify leadership of the party and the state as President Xi Jinping did in neighbouring China.
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Vietnam's 500-seat National Assembly serves mainly to ratify decisions made by the party, although it occasionally amends proposed legislation.
Its members were elected last month in a vote that saw the Communist Party win nearly 97 per cent of seats.
The newly elected delegates are expected to confirm leaders tapped by senior cadres at the party's twice-a-decade congress in January.
While Lam was maintained as general secretary, the party did not publicly announce the other main "pillars" of Vietnam's collective leadership structure.
Lam has implemented dramatic changes in nearly two years at the helm, slashing bureaucratic red tape and pushing major infrastructure investments as he aims to boost economic growth.
He called on lawmakers to adopt a "development-oriented approach" in a speech to the National Assembly on Monday, urging them to speed up decision-making and eliminate "bottlenecks".
"The nation that proactively implements strategic reforms, promptly reforms its institutions, unleashes creativity, mobilises the resources of its entire population, and seizes new opportunities will rise and develop," he said.
Lam would be the first leader to have secured the top two jobs at a party congress, rather than stepping in following an officeholder's death.
The prime minister will also be confirmed by lawmakers' votes.
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