Vietnam's ruling Communist Party re-elects To Lam as general secretary

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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam’s leader To Lam was re-elected Friday as the general secretary of its ruling Communist Party, securing a new five-year term in the country’s most powerful position and pledging to rev up economic growth in the export powerhouse.

Lam, 68, was reappointed unanimously by the party’s 180-member Central Committee at the conclusion of the National Party Congress, the country’s most important political conclave.

In a speech, he said he wanted to build a system grounded in “integrity, talent, courage, and competence,” with officials to be judged on merit rather than seniority or rhetoric.

No announcement was made about whether Lam will also become president. If he were to get both positions, he would be the country’s most powerful leader in decades, similar to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The Congress was framed by Vietnam’s defining national question: whether the country can transform itself into a high-income economy by 2045. During the meeting, Vietnam set a target of average annual GDP growth of 10% or more from 2026 to 2030.

The gathering brought together nearly 1,600 delegates to outline Vietnam's political and economic direction through 2031. It also confirmed a slate of senior appointments, electing 19 members to the Politburo, the country’s top leadership body.

Beyond settling the question of who will lead Vietnam for the coming years, the Congress will also determine how the country’s single-party system responds to world grown increasingly turbulent as China and the United States wrangle over trade and Washington under President Donald Trump challenges a longstanding global order.

Vietnam’s transformation into a global manufacturing hub for electronics, textiles, and footwear has been striking. Poverty has declined and the middle class is growing quickly.

But challenges loom as the country tries to balance rapid growth with reforms, an aging population, climate risks, weak institutions and U.S. pressure over its trade surplus. At the same time it must balance relations with major powers. Vietnam has overlapping territorial claims with China, its largest trading partner, in the South China Sea.

Lam has overseen Vietnam's most ambitious bureaucratic and economic reforms since the late 1980s, when it liberalized its economy. Under his leadership, the government has cut tens of thousands of public-sector jobs, redrawn administrative boundaries to speed decision-making, and initiated dozens of major infrastructure projects.

Lam spent decades in the Ministry of Public Security before becoming its minister in 2016. He led an anti-corruption campaign championed by his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong. During his rise, Vietnam’s Politburo lost six of its 18 members during an anti-graft campaign, including two former presidents and Vietnam’s parliamentary head.