Vietnam Party Central Committee meets to identify successors

(Front) Party Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong (L) with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the 12th Plenum of the 12th Party Central Committee in Hanoi, May 11, 2020. Photo courtesy Vietnam Government Portal.

The four-day meeting will decide who will be the members of the 13th Central Party Committee in 2021-26, with the announcements expected to be made at the National Party Congress next January.

The Central Committee is the highest authority in the Communist Party of Vietnam, and currently has 176 full members and 26 alternate members.

In his speech on the opening day of the meeting on Monday, Party chief and President, Nguyen Phu Trong, said the process of constituting the next committee needs "strong determination to fight individualism and group interests."

The next committee "needs to have a reasonable ratio of members who are young, female, ethnic people, scientists, artists, and managers of major state-owned corporations," he said.

At the quinquennial National Congress in January, new members of the Party Central Committee will be announced. 76-year-old General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong would have completed his two-term limit though he could remain president for another five years.

The plenum will also discuss voting methods for the National Assembly for the 2021-26 term.

The NA is expected to have less than 500 members, at least 35 percent of them women and 18 percent from other ethnic groups.

In February Trong issued new criteria for appointing top officials.

It sets the premise for evaluating, planning, assigning, transferring, and introducing candidates ahead of the 13th National Congress.

One of the key changes has to do with the transfer of officials. A provision requiring key provincial leaders to have prior experience and fulfilled their duties well as key district leaders has been removed.