National Assembly to approve dismissal of two deputy prime ministers

Vietnam's National Assembly on Thursday began the process of dismissing Deputy Prime Ministers Pham Binh Minh and Vu Duc Dam and appointing replacements.

As scheduled for its extraordinary session, from 11 a.m., the legislative body will hold a separate meeting on personnel issues.

The personnel affair includes: approving the dismissal of the duo as National Assemby members and as deputy prime ministers for the 2021-2026 term, and appointing replacements upon Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's proposal, according to Nguyen Thi Thanh, head of the legislative body's Committee for Delegate Affairs.

National Assembly members will cast secret votes on the proposed dismissals and appointments of replacements in the afternoon.

On December 30, the Party Central Committee decided to let Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh and Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam resign from their positions.

The committee voted and agreed to let Minh resign from the positions of Politburo member and Party Central Committee member. It also voted and agreed for Dam to resign from the position of Party Central Committee member.

The committee also gave opinions for the Politburo, the Party's premier decision-making body, to make personnel replacement recommendations to the National Assembly for the 2021-2026 term.

An announcement from the Party Central Committee on December 30 did not mention the reasons behind its decisions.

Previously, on September 27, Nguyen Quang Linh, assistant to Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, was arrested for allegedly accepting bribes related to the repatriation of Vietnamese citizens during the pandemic crisis. Linh, 48, was detained by the Ministry of Public Security's investigative agency per the Penal Code.

On December 16, Nguyen Van Trinh, assistant to Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam, was expelled from the Communist Party due to "ideological and political deterioration, and accepting bribes" in the Viet A Covid test kit scam. Trinh was arrested on November 30 for allegedly influencing the Ministry of Health's decision to grant a circulation permit for Viet A Company's Covid-19 test kits.

In the opening day of the extraordinary session on Thursday, the National Assembly will also listen to the government's proposal on the National Master Plan for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050.