The Communist Party leader is considering the dual role of party chief and president of Vietnam.
Published on January 20, 2026
Supreme Leader of Vietnam Addressing a gathering of the country’s ruling Communist Party, Lam pledged to fight corruption and boost annual economic growth to more than 10 percent for the rest of the decade.
In a speech before the two-decade party congress on Tuesday, the general secretary stressed that “all wrongdoing must be dealt with” and urged the party to pursue administrative reforms and tackle “waste and negativity” in government.
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Lam, 68, said Vietnam needed to cut red tape and increase global trade to protect independence and national interests.
The week-long congress, which began on Monday in the capital Hanoi, will elect the party chief, the country’s most powerful post, and set economic goals until 2030.
According to reports, Lam will retain his role as party chief and seek the state presidency – a role that would create a dual role similar to that of China’s Xi Jinping.
If he claims both top posts, he will have “the strongest mandate for the Vietnamese leadership Since the end of the Vietnam War“, Nguyen Khac Giang of Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusuf Ishak Institute told the AFP news agency.
Lam has already shocked the country with the pace of his reforms, which have also sidelined rivals and further centralized his powers. Since taking office 17 months ago, he has slashed nearly 150,000 jobs from the state payroll, scrapped eight ministries or agencies, and pushed through ambitious railway and power projects.
In a speech to nearly 1,600 party delegates on Tuesday, Lam said his gathering was taking place amid “many overlapping difficulties and challenges, from natural disasters, storms and floods to epidemics, security threats, fierce strategic competition and major disruptions in energy and food supply chains”.
The party is also “committed to fighting corruption … recognizing the private sector as an important pillar of the economy”, he said.
“Infrastructure must be developed to adapt to climate change and ensure strong regional, interregional and global connectivity,” he added.
According to a document reviewed by Reuters news agency, the Communist Party’s submission to Congress set the annual economic growth target below 10 percent until 2030.
The state-run Vietnam News reported that party documents submitted to Congress called for stricter enforcement of legal discipline “to overcome long-standing problems where ‘the law is sound but implementation is difficult'” and where there is “much talk, little action”, which had lost public trust and wasted national resources.
