Vietnam names first female permanent member of Communist Party’s Secretariat

Mai, 65, was appointed into the new position by the Politburo after a Monday meeting, the office of the Central Party Committee said.

Mai has been a member of the Politburo, the Central Party Committee and the National Assembly for multiple terms. By assuming the new position, she has also become Vietnam’s first female permanent, or standing member of the Secretariat since 1976.

From 2002 to 2016, Mai has been working with the National Assembly as the deputy head of the Committee on Culture and Education, then head of the Committee on Social Affairs.

She was voted into the Politburo in 2016, before being part of the Secretariat as the head of the Central Mass Mobilization Department. She was re-elected into the Politburo in 2021, before becoming the head of the organization commission of the Central Party Committee.

Thuong, 53, was elected Vietnam’s president on Thursday last week, becoming the youngest person to hold the position in the country’s history. He became president weeks after his predecessor Nguyen Xuan Phuc stepped down after serving for nearly two years.