Vietnam's Communist Party has unanimously re-elected To Lam as General Secretary, positioning the 68-year-old leader to potentially become the country's most powerful figure in decades. The 180-member Central Committee voted without a single dissent on Friday, January 23, at the conclusion of the National Party Congress in Hanoi, securing Lam's position for the 2026-2031 term.
The unanimous vote signals strong support within the party for Lam's aggressive reform agenda. Tran Thanh Man, chairman of Vietnam's National Assembly, announced that the party central committee absolutely unanimously elected Comrade To Lam to continue holding the position of General Secretary. Analysts now expect Lam to also assume the presidency, which would make him the most dominant Vietnamese leader since the era of collective leadership began, drawing comparisons to Chinese President Xi Jinping's consolidation of power.
Since ascending to the top party position following the death of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in 2024, Lam has shocked the country with the unprecedented pace of his structural reforms. He has eliminated entire layers of government bureaucracy, abolishing eight ministries or agencies and cutting nearly 150,000 jobs from the state payroll. His administration has also pursued ambitious infrastructure projects, including major rail and power initiatives designed to modernize the nation's economy.
The Congress set extraordinarily ambitious economic targets, with Lam pledging to achieve annual growth of 10 percent or higher through 2030. The leader outlined a vision to transform Vietnam from its current cheap-labor, export-dependent economic model into a high-middle-income economy focused on innovation and efficiency. The goal is to establish Vietnam as a high-income nation by 2045, a target that would require sustained double-digit growth unprecedented in the country's modern history.
Lam's re-election has been welcomed by foreign investors who regularly cite political stability as critical to Vietnam's appeal as a pro-business destination. The country has become an increasingly important manufacturing hub for global companies seeking alternatives to China, and the consolidation of leadership under Lam provides clarity about the direction of economic policy for the coming years.
However, the concentration of power in a single leader represents a significant departure from Vietnam's post-war tradition of collective leadership, where power was distributed among multiple senior officials. Critics have raised concerns about the erosion of institutional checks and balances, though Lam's anti-corruption campaign has maintained popular support among ordinary Vietnamese citizens frustrated with official misconduct.
In his address to the Congress, Lam acknowledged the challenges facing Vietnam, warning of overlapping threats including natural disasters, epidemics, security risks, fierce strategic competition among major powers, and potential disruptions in energy and food supply chains. High-ranking leaders from Laos, China, and Cambodia sent congratulatory messages following the announcement, reflecting Vietnam's strategic importance in Southeast Asian geopolitics.
Comments