Who is he?
Vuong Dinh Hue was most recently the head of the economic commission of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party, a position that he held from January 2013. He served as minister of finance between 2011 and 2012, and spent five years as Vietnam’s auditor general. Prior to his career in government, Hue was a professor at the University of Finance and Accounting in Hanoi. Hue received his PhD from the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 1990.
Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue of Vietnam. Source: Wikimedia user Dong12A1, used under a creative commons license.
Why is he in the news?
On April 9, the National Assembly confirmed Hue as one of three new deputy prime ministers in the incoming government. He will be in charge of economic and financial issues in the office of new Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Hue was also elected to the new Politburo, a 19-member body with the highest decision-making authority in the party, at the Communist Party congress in January.
What can we expect from him?
Hue is a technocrat with a track record of working effectively between government agencies and party organs. He was seen as the party’s economic czar, and is said to enjoy good relations with General-Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who was re-elected to another five-year term as party chief in January.
Hue’s appointment is a signal that the new leadership wants to retain continuity in economic management expertise from the previous government. He will likely play a crucial role in coordinating the implementation of Vietnam’s reform agenda, including under the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and other free trade agreements with the European Union and South Korea, over the next five years. Expect him to be a trusted voice to party leaders on the critical issues of reforms of state-owned enterprises and the domestic banking sector.
