Hanoi (Vietnam) (AFP) - Vietnam’s Communist Party on Tuesday endorsed General Secretary To Lam to remain in the top job for the next five years, according to two sources briefed on a meeting where senior officials agreed a slate of candidates to be announced at the party congress in January.

Lam, who became party chief after the death of his predecessor in August 2024, has enacted reforms described by officials as “a revolution”, slashing the bureaucracy and cracking down on corruption as he seeks to boost economic growth.

“No change. The party chief remains in his position to ensure stability,” a source briefed on the meeting told AFP.

A second source confirmed he will continue as general secretary and also be nominated to serve simultaneously as president, as Chinese President Xi Jinping has done.

“On behalf of those entrusted with the nomination to the (party) Central Committee and leadership positions for the next term… we would like to thank the Central Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat for their trust in assigning us this task,” Lam said in a speech Tuesday, appearing to thank delegates for nominating him.

“We will continue to work together in unity and with a high sense of responsibility and efficiency, meeting the expectations of the Party and the People.”

The leadership decisions must be finalized at the party congress which runs from January 19-25, when key policy plans will also be outlined for the next five years.

- Radical reform -

Lam, who served briefly as president in 2024, stepped up as the top leader two weeks after the death of former General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong last year.

Lam’s rise to the top job followed a long career with the secretive public security ministry, which deals with the monitoring of dissent and surveillance in Vietnam, a one-party state.

In his short tenure, he has accelerated administrative reforms and announced vast infrastructure investments – aiming to meet aggressive growth targets that underpin the party’s claim to legitimacy.

The reforms saw the number of government ministries and agencies slashed from 30 to 22.

State media, the civil service, the police and the military all faced cuts.

Roughly 147,000 people were made redundant or took early retirement as Hanoi sought to streamline bureaucracy and boost the economy.

Slashing the bureaucracy has been a Communist Party goal for nearly a decade, but Lam intensified the drive.

Lam also pushed to reduce the country’s 63 provincial and city administrations to just 34.

The reforms to the structure of government follow a sprawling, high-profile anti-corruption campaign in recent years.

The drive has swept up dozens of business leaders and senior government figures, including two presidents and three deputy prime ministers since 2021.

The radical reforms piloted by Lam come after a long period in which change came slowly, with the government emphasising stability and calm to build a reputation for predictability and court foreign investors.