Vietnam's To Lam consolidates power with presidential perch

Ty McCormick Vietnam Communist Party boss To Lam was elected president by the National Assembly on Tuesday, capping his bid to centralise authority in a nation where senior cadres have traditionally governed collectively. In less than two years as party chief, the 68-year-old has swept aside rivals and transformed the country through an aggressive reform drive — literally redrawing the map as he combined provinces and slashed bureaucracy.

Lam has set an ambitious target of 10 per cent annual growth for the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub and muscled the party behind his vision for development-oriented reform. After securing another term as the party's general secretary in January, Lam has now taken over the number two position in Vietnamese politics — unifying leadership of the party and state as President Xi Jinping did in neighbouring China.

The move has "effectively turned him into Vietnam's 'supreme leader'", said Le Hong Hiep, senior fellow at the Vietnam Studies Programme at Singapore's ISEAS — Yusof Ishak Institute. It has "transitioned the country's leadership from a consensus-based collective model to a strongman leadership style," he told AFP. Tran Thanh Man, chairman of the National Assembly, said 100 percent of deputies who were present approved the resolution electing Lam president for the 2026-2031 term.

In a speech to the parliament after being sworn in, Lam called his new dual role a "huge honour" and a "sacred and noble duty". Elevated to party chief after general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's death in 2024, Lam has shocked the country with the pace of his changes.

He has eliminated whole layers of government, abolishing eight ministries or agencies and cutting nearly 150,000 jobs from the state payroll, while pushing massive infrastructure projects. Lam is now promoting a "new growth model" that speeds up decision-making and unleashes the private sector to achieve double-digit annual growth for the next five years.

"The odds of his reform programme succeeding have increased because he has further scope to push it forward", said former US ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink, reflecting on Lam's "unprecedented power and influence". Vietnam is both a repressive one-party state and a regional economic bright spot, where the Communist Party has sought to deliver rapid growth to bolster its legitimacy.

The country of 100 million proved surprisingly resilient in the face of 20 per cent tariffs imposed by US leader Donald Trump last year, clocking eight percent growth in 2025, among the fastest in Asia. But the balancing act between the United States — its main export market — and its largest supplier China remains perilous, especially as the Trump administration seeks to prevent what it considers the illegal transshipment of Chinese goods via Vietnam.

The conflict in the Middle East has also created headwinds. Fuel prices have surged since the first US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, and like many Southeast Asian countries it faces possible shortages. "There's a risk this energy crisis could jeopardise their growth goals," said Kritenbrink, adding he expects disruptions to continue for at least six months to a year even if the fighting stops tomorrow. "As the crisis drags on, the implications become more severe," he said.

Lam referenced "numerous challenges" to "world order and international law" in an earlier speech to the National Assembly on Monday. "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. Vietnam's ruling party tolerates little dissent and regularly jails critics, more than 160 of whom are behind bars, according to Human Rights Watch.