Nguyen Tan Dung

In this Vietnamese name, the family name is Nguyen. According to Vietnamese custom, this person should properly be referred to by the given name Dung.

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng
Prime Minister of Vietnam
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 June 2006
Deputy	Nguyen Sinh Hung
Preceded by	Phan Van Khai
Chairman of the State Bank
In office 27 June 1998 – 27 June 1999
Preceded by	Cao Sĩ Kiêm
Succeeded by	Lê Đức Thúy
Member of the Politburo
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 1996
Member of the Secretariat
In office 1 July 1996 – 2001
Personal details
Born	(1949-11-17) 17 November 1949 Cà Mau City, Cà Mau, Vietnam
Political party	Communist Party

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (born 17 November 1949) is the Prime Minister of Vietnam. He was confirmed by the National Assembly on 27 June 2006, having been nominated by his predecessor, Phan Van Khai, who retired from office. Since a party congress in January 2011, Dung has been ranked third in the hierarchy of the Communist Party of Vietnam, after State President Truong Tan Sang and Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh.

Biography

Dung was born in Ca Mau Province in southern Vietnam. On his 12th birthday, the young Dung is said to have voluntarily joined the Vietcong, doing first-aid, and communication tasks; he also worked as a nurse, and a physician. Dung was four times wounded in the Vietnam War, and was later ranked as a level 2/4 wounded veteran. As a Senior Lieutenant he was Chief Political Commissar of Infantry Battalion 207; as a Captain, he was Political Chief of Infantry Regiment 152, defending the southwestern border; and as Major, he was Head of the Personnel Board of Kien Giang Province's Military Command.

He was admitted to the Communist Party of Vietnam on June 10, 1967.

He attended the high-level Nguyen Ai Quoc Party School.

He joined the People’s Armed Forces in 1961, serving there until 1984. He fought in the south and in the west during the Vietnam War. He cited his desire for national independence as his reasons for fighting on the battlefield. During this time, he also contributed in operations with Cambodians to help rid them of the Khmer Rouge rule. During his service, he was wounded four times.

Dung previously served as first deputy prime minister from 29 September 1997. He was also the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam between 1998 and 1999. He was admitted to the Communist Party of Vietnam on 10 June 1967, then joined the army as a full-fledged fighter and was subsequently elected a member of the Party’s Politburo at the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth National Party Congresses.

He is the first senior Vietnamese communist leader who was born after the August Revolution in 1945 and the youngest Vietnamese prime minister (57 years old when he assumed the office). He is also a native southerner and remained in the southern region throughout the Vietnam War (he was only 5 when the country was divided in 1954).

He was reelected to the post of prime minister on 25 July 2007.

In August 2007, it was reported that Dung was displaying a “remarkable enthusiasm for the Internet." The government had set up a form through which corrupt officials could be reported online. He held an online chat that was viewed by over 1 million people where he answered some screened questions regarding thing from government control of the media to personal career tips. One youth asked how he could be Prime Minister someday, to which Dung responded: "Throughout my time following the Party and the Revolution, I always obeyed the assignments of the organization.”

It was reported that Vietnam's post-war generation "is increasingly wired, as the Communist Party attempts to foster economic growth and high-tech skills”. The government does block politically-oriented sites and pornography. There has also been talk of censoring blogs; it was noted that there is a fake Dung blog on which the language “mimics official jargon, but is subtly peppered with anti-communist barbs.”

In 2009, Dung made a two day visit to Russia where he signed a multi-billion dollar arms deal. In 2010, one deputy called for a no confidence motion against Dung in response to a financial scandal at the Vinashin shipbuilding group. At a party congress in January 2011, he was nominated for another term as prime minister.^{[citation needed]}

On April 12, 2010, Dung attended a luncheon with U.S. Vice President Biden and other world leaders at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. On the same date he met Obama at the World Security Summit where he “spoke glowingly to American business leaders of Vietnam’s economic growth — 7.2 percent per year over the last decade — and endorsed Obama’s concerns about nuclear safety.”

On July 26, 2011, Dung was officially re-elected prime minister by the 13th National Assembly, winning 470 out of 500 votes. but lost out to Truong Tan Sang in the competition to lead the party's Politburo, or executive committee.

References

Political offices
Preceded by Phan Van Khai	Prime Minister of Vietnam 2006–present	Incumbent