HCMC gets new Party Secretary

A native of Tay Ninh Province, which borders Ho Chi Minh City, Nen received 100 percent of votes at the city’s four-day Party Congress, which began October 15 and will wrap up Sunday.

Nen, 63, received a decision last Sunday to leave his seat as Chief of the Party Central Office, the Communist Party's advisory agency, to join the Executive Committee and Standing Committee of the HCMC Party Committee.

Four new deputy secretaries were elected at the congress: Tran Luu Quang, Standing Deputy Secretary of HCMC Party Committee; Nguyen Thanh Phong, HCMC Chairman; Nguyen Thi Le, Chairwoman of HCMC People's Council; and Nguyen Ho Hai, head of Commission for Organization of HCMC Party Committee.

As per a decision released Saturday afternoon, Nen's predecessor Nguyen Thien Nhan was tasked by the Politburo, the Party's decision-making body, to continue monitoring and directing the HCMC Party Committee until the end of the 13th National Party Congress, which is scheduled to take place in January 2021. Nhan has been HCMC's Party Chief since May 2017.

Nen, who has a degree in law, was formerly Chairman of the Tay Ninh People’s Committee and later on, Party Chief of the southern province.

He became a member of the Party Central Committee in July 2011 and kept rising in the ranks, going on to become the Deputy Head of the Steering Committee for the Central Highlands, and then Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Party Committee.

In November 2013, he was appointed Minister, Chairman of the Government Office.

In January 2016, Nen was re-elected to the Party Central Committee and then the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee. A month later, he was assigned as Chief of the Party Central Office.

Nen takes the helm as HCMC, Vietnam's southern metropolis, seeks to build on its status as the nation’s growth engine, achieving an average economic growth of more than 7 percent annually in the past five years and making up 26-27 percent of the country’s growth. The city’s labor productivity is 2.6 times higher than the national average.

Over the next five years, the city has set itself a target of achieving an annual gross regional domestic product (GRDP) growth rate of 8 percent and a GRDP per capita of $8,500 by 2025. Last year, the city's GRDP per capita reached $6,862, according to official figures.