HANOI: Vietnam’s top leader To Lam pledged annual economic growth of more than 10 per cent for the remainder of the decade despite global disruptions, as he addressed delegates at the Communist Party congress on Tuesday (Jan 20).
The week-long event, which started on Monday in Hanoi, will select the party chief, the country’s most powerful position, and set economic goals up to 2030.
The congress is taking place amid “many overlapping difficulties and challenges, from natural disasters, storms and floods to epidemics, security risks, fierce strategic competition, and major disruptions in energy and food supply chain”, Lam told delegates at the start of his speech.
The former head of state security, who is seeking to retain his role as party chief and possibly take on the state presidency, promised to further reform the public administration after he launched the bureaucracy’s most significant overhaul in decades during his brief tenure as party chief.
A party document submitted to the congress and reviewed by Reuters set the annual growth goal at no less than 10 per cent until 2030, above a missed target of 6.5 per cent to 7 per cent for the first half of the decade.
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