Reformer appointed new Vietnamese PM

Reformer appointed new Vietnamese PM

HANOI (Agencies): Vietnam's National Assembly appointed a
popular southern reformer as prime minister yesterday, completing
the second leg of a long-awaited leadership reshuffle.

Assembly sources said Phan Van Khai, who stood unopposed for
the post, won a 98-percent approval rating from the newly elected
legislature in a vote behind closed doors.

Khai, 63, replaces Vo Van Kiet -- a man more than 10 years his
senior -- in a position which puts him at the helm of continuing
efforts to adapt the nation from a Soviet-style command-led
system to a free-market economy.

Considered a canny technocrat and a quiet champion of the
"renovation", Khai used his acceptance speech to pledge quicker
reform in the face of tougher and more complicated challenges.

"During the reform process the achievements that we have
made ... have created great potential and opportunities for us,"
he said.

"However, development does not just move downstream, there
will surely be bigger difficulties and challenges that need to be
overcome, the demands of life that need to be met are higher and
more complicated," he said.

He said that an administration had to be built which is close
to the people, clean, effective and capable.

Khai was originally mooted for the prime minister's post
before the 1996 Communist Party congress, but a flurry of
damaging gossip and rumors about the business activities of
family members held him back at that time.

Diplomats say he has a good grasp of economic issues and so
will be well-placed to steer Vietnam through the difficulties of
its first serious downturn since reforms were launched.

But they also say he will have to demonstrate that he can
match the stamina and energy of his predecessor.

Khai's election comes a day after Communist Party technocrat
Tran Duc Luong, a Russian-trained geologist, was elected
president.

The appointment of the two men is the first reshuffle of the
country's leadership triumvirate in five years.

The third position in the three-man ruling collective, that of
Communist Party secretary-general, is not at stake in this week's
changes.

One of Khai's first tasks will be to nominate candidates for
deputy prime ministerial and other cabinet posts.

The assembly, Vietnam's parliament, is scheduled to vote on
their appointments before the end of the week.

Carlyle Thayer, head of the political science department of
the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra said the new
line up reflects "fantastic changes at the state level ...
repeating a pattern of Vietnam's groping to the economic systems
to fit society".

The new government's two most immediate concerns will be
ensuring domestic stability in the wake of violent rural protests
and assuring international donors and investors that economic
reforms are on track.

But Thayer also notes that genuine structural changes,
especially to the state sector, will not be forthcoming until the
ruling Communist Party endorses such a plan and that will have to
await a decision on the successor to 80-year-old party general
secretary Do Muoi.

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