Environment minister, Hai Phong Party chief named deputy PMs

Ha, 59, has held positions at the Ministry of Science and Technology, as well as the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment.

Tran Hong Ha, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Phong

In July 2008, he became the deputy environment minister, and the deputy Party Secretary of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province six months later. He became the environment minister in April 2016, and has held the position ever since.

Quang, 55, has held several governmental positions in the southern Tay Ninh Province, his hometown. He became the chairman of the Trang Bang District People's Committee in August 2008, then the standing deputy chairman of the Tay Ninh Province People's Committee.

He became the Party Secretary of Tay Ninh in July 2015. He was eventually assigned by the Politburo to become the Party Secretary of Hai Phong in May 2021, a position he has held ever since.

Tran Luu Quang, Party Secretary of Hai Phong. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Phong

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Thursday requested the National Assembly to approve the dismissal of deputy prime ministers Pham Binh Minh and Vu Duc Dam from their positions ‘on their own volition’.

Chinh said the Politburo has allowed both Minh and Dam to step down from their leadership positions and retire per existing regulations.

On Friday last week, an extraordinary session by the Communist Party's Central Committee had voted for Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh to no longer be a member of the Politburo or a member of the 13th Central Party Committee, and for Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam to no longer be a member of the 13th Central Party Committee. No further explanation was given.

The Central Party Committee also gave its opinions regarding two candidates that the Politburo may recommend for the National Assembly to approve for the title of deputy prime minister for the 2021-2026 term.

The Vietnamese government for the 2021-2026 term has four deputy prime ministers. After the Friday Central Party Committee meeting, the government has two deputy prime ministers left who are members of the Central Party Committee: Le Minh Khai and Le Van Thanh.

Minh, 63, is a veteran diplomat who entered the foreign affairs ministry in 1981. He then held several positions in the diplomatic sector, before becoming the deputy foreign minister in 2007, and the foreign minister in 2011. He became deputy prime minister in 2013, a position he has held for the last 9 years. He became standing deputy prime minister in 2021.

Minh is in charge of fields regarding diplomacy, external relations, international integration and human rights-related issues, among others.

Dam, 59, had spent 10 years working at the Government Office in multiple positions starting 1994. He became the deputy chairman of Bac Ninh Province in 2003, then deputy minister of the then-Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (now the Ministry of Information and Communications) in 2005.

He became head of the Government Office in 2011, and has been a deputy prime minister since 2013.

Dam is in charge of fields regarding education, training, science and technology, labor, information and communications, culture, tourism, sport, healthcare and population, among others.