HANOI: Vietnam Communist Party boss To Lam was elected president by the National Assembly on Tuesday, capping his bid to centralise authority in a nation where senior cadres have traditionally governed collectively.
After securing another term as the party's general secretary in January, Lam will now take over the number two position in Vietnamese politics -- unifying leadership of the party and state as President Xi Jinping did in neighbouring China.
"For me, taking the responsibility of the general secretary and the president is a very huge honor...a responsibility, and a sacred and noble duty," Lam said in a speech after being sworn in.
Tran Thanh Man, chairman of the National Assembly, said 100 percent of deputies who were present approved the resolution electing Lam president for the 2026-2031 term.
Lam is the first person to secure the top two jobs through the party's normal leadership selection processes, rather than stepping in following the death of an officeholder.
In less than two years as party chief, he has swept aside rivals and transformed the country through an aggressive reform drive -- literally redrawing the map as he combined provinces and slashed bureaucracy.
Lam has set an ambitious target of 10 percent annual growth for the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub and muscled the party behind his vision for development-oriented reform.
Vietnam is both a repressive one-party state and a regional economic bright spot, where the Communist Party has sought to deliver rapid growth to bolster its legitimacy.