National Assembly to approve two new deputy PMs

Nguyen Thi Thanh, head of the Board of Delegate Affairs of the assembly, said at a Tuesday press meet that an extraordinary National Assembly session on Thursday would involve three personnel matters: the dismissal of personnel as National Assembly delegates, the approval for dismissing and the approval for appointing government personnel per the prime minister’s request.

The selection of personnel, or their replacement, is something that people should get used to and “consider as normal,” Thanh said.

Earlier on Friday last week, an extraordinary session by the Communist Party’s Central Committee had voted for Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh to no longer be a member of the Politburo or a member of the 13th Central Party Committee, and for Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam to no longer be a member of the 13th Central Party Committee. No further explanation was given.

The Central Party Committee also gave its opinions regarding two candidates that the Politburo may recommend for the National Assembly to approve for the title of deputy prime minister for the 2021-2026 term.

The Vietnamese government for the 2021-2026 term has four deputy prime ministers: Pham Binh Minh, Le Minh Khai, Vu Duc Dam and Le Van Thanh. After the Friday Central Party Committee meeting, the government has two deputy prime ministers left who are members of the Central Party Committee.

Minh, 63, is a veteran diplomat who entered the foreign affairs ministry in 1981. He then held several positions in the diplomatic sector, before becoming the deputy foreign minister in 2007, and the foreign minister in 2011. He became deputy prime minister in 2013, a position he has held for the last 9 years. He became standing deputy prime minister in 2021.

Minh is in charge of fields regarding diplomacy, external relations, international integration and human rights-related issues, among others.

Dam, 59, had spent 10 years working at the Government Office in multiple positions starting 1994. He became the deputy chairman of Bac Ninh Province in 2003, then deputy minister of the then-Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (now the Ministry of Information and Communications) in 2005.

He became head of the Government Office in 2011, and has been a deputy prime minister since 2013.

Dam is in charge of fields regarding education, training, science and technology, labor, information and communications, culture, tourism, sport, healthcare and population, among others.