PM Nguyen Tan Dung to step down today

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. Photo: Giang Huy

In a statement on Dung’s dismissal, President Tran Dai Quang said the head of the executive branch has always completed the tasks assigned to him.

"Due to the required arrangements of state and the Party’s senior personnel, I ask the NA for consideration and approval of Prime Minister Dung to step down", Quang said.

On March 26, Dung made a farewell speech to other government staffs and officials in the last official session of his working term, during a regular government meeting.

The timing of Dung’s exit will be in line with the National Assembly’s plan to push forward the transition to a new government three months earlier than scheduled.

Dung was born in 1949 (Ca Mau province). In 1995 – 1996, he assumed the post of vice minister of Public Security then head of the Central Economic Committee.

In 1997, Dung was appointed as the youngest Deputy Prime Minister (48 years old) ever at that time and in 1998 – 1999, he concurrently held the position of governor of the State Bank of Vietnam.

He was appointed as the youngest Prime Minister in 20 years - the position which he held for two terms from 2006.

Dung and eight other members of the Politburo did not participate in the new Party Central Committee.

One of Dung’s deputies, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, was the only candidate put forward by the party’s congress in January to become Vietnam’s next prime minister. The vote will be casted on April 7.