9 outstanding political - economic - social events in 2018

General Secretary elected President

On October 23, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong was elected President by the National Assembly with a 99.79% approval rate. In the context of President Tran Dai Quang's death a month earlier, this event was explained as "not a policy of unification" but "a situation where Vietnam lacked a position".

Thus, for the first time in 32 years, Vietnam has had a Party leader who is also the head of the State. Since 1945, there have been two people holding the highest positions in the Party who have held the title of head of State: President Ho Chi Minh and General Secretary Truong Chinh.

The model of Party leadership as the head of state is considered to facilitate foreign affairs and the implementation of national development policies. Many incumbent leaders and experts support Vietnam institutionalizing this model. However, the final decision belongs to the Party Central Committee and the 13th National Congress, scheduled to be held in the first quarter of 2021.

President Tran Dai Quang passes away

On September 21, President Tran Dai Quang passed away at the age of 62 due to a serious illness, just halfway through his term as President. His health deteriorated in a very short period of time. Just a few days ago, he was presiding over a series of domestic and foreign affairs activities of the country.

The sudden passing of the President caused the opening session of the 6th Session of the 14th National Assembly a month later to lack one of the four highest leadership positions in Vietnam.

President Tran Dai Quang was diagnosed with the disease in July 2017 and underwent treatment in Japan. Despite this, he often appeared in public in many busy activities. His condition was not made public until the day he passed away.

Also in 2018, Vietnam held two other state funerals to send off former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and former General Secretary Do Muoi.

National Assembly postpones passing Special Economic Zone Law

The draft Law on special administrative-economic units of Van Don, Bac Van Phong, Phu Quoc (Special Zone Law) was discussed and expected to be passed in May 2018.

Conceived more than 10 years ago, the draft Law on Special Economic Zones was first submitted to the National Assembly at the end of 2017 session, aiming to institutionalize the provisions of the Constitution and the Party's guidelines on building a number of special economic zones with superior institutions, creating growth poles and experimenting with innovation.

With 6 chapters and 85 articles, the bill creates a legal corridor for three special economic zones including Van Don (Quang Ninh), Bac Van Phong (Khanh Hoa), and Phu Quoc (Kien Giang). In particular, the tax incentives and maximum land lease term of 99 years (current regulation is 70 years) have led to many conflicting opinions.

Opponents are concerned that the land lease term is too long, causing the risk of losing control over security and national defense; and is an unnecessary mechanism when the industry and business will fluctuate continuously in the future.

Taking into account the opinions, the Prime Minister affirmed that the law will be adjusted to shorten the land lease term. On June 9, the Government proposed that the National Assembly postpone the time to pass the Law. However, many people in Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Binh Thuan, Khanh Hoa... stilltake to the streets to protestMany incidents of disturbance, attacks on law enforcement officers, and vandalism of government offices occurred, resulting in dozens of people being prosecuted.

On June 11, the National Assembly decidedpostponement of passageLaw on Special Economic Zones. Commenting on the gathering of hundreds of thousands of people to protest against this draft law, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said that this was "regrettable" because many people "misunderstanding"and "misunderstanding the matter". General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said "the truth has been distorted, patriotism has been exploited".

Vietnam joins CPTPP

On November 12, the 14th National Assembly passed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and related documents. This move was awaited by domestic and foreign enterprises, amid complicated developments in world trade.

The agreement includes 11 countries with a total GDP value of about 10,000 billion USD, equivalent to 13% of global GDP.

Experts believe that CPTPP will bring many great opportunities in terms of market, incentives, export structure and integration potential. Vietnam's GDP and exports could increase by 1.32% and 4.04% respectively by 2035; the number of jobs will increase by an average of 20,000 - 26,000 per year. However, joining CPTPP also poses many challenges for Vietnam such as labor institutions, public procurement, state-owned enterprise management, intellectual property rights, etc.

The CPTPP has been ratified by seven member countries and will come into effect at the end of December. The predecessor of the CPTPP is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). After the US withdrew, the remaining countries, under the leadership of Japan, negotiated and launched it in November 2017.

Cheating on national high school exam scores

On July 11, the Ministry of Education and Training announced the 2018 national high school exam scores of more than 900,000 candidates. Excellent scores in Ha Giang, Son La, and Hoa Binh unexpectedly skyrocketed, while these are all provinces with high dropout rates and the lowest high school graduation rates in the country.

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Security have discovered that hundreds of essay and multiple-choice tests have been altered and scores have been raised. The police are investigating the case of Abuse of Power while on duty in three provinces. Ten officials in the education sector have been prosecuted.

Since the national high school exam was held in 2015, this is the first case of cheating to be discovered. This is also the largest scandal, taking place in many provinces, with high-level tricks, involving officials and leaders of the local education sector. Currently, after more than 4 months, the police have not yet reached a conclusion.

Many loopholes in the national high school exam have been pointed out, from the exam invigilation, grading to supervision. Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha has taken responsibility, promising to make adjustments in both technology and personnel to ensure accurate exam results.

Due to the exam turmoil, the National Assembly postponed the approval of the Education Law until mid-2019. The results of the vote of confidence at the National Assembly showed that Minister Phung Xuan Nha had the lowest confidence level among the 48 leaders voted for.

Serious violations in Thu Thiem

"1/5000 planning map of Thu Thiem New Urban Area (District 2) waslost", the statement of the spokesperson of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee at the press conference in early May has fueled the already tense anger of hundreds of people.Thu Thiem village. Being forced to move even though their houses were not in the planning, these people have been "camping" at the Central Government to complain for 10 years. The highest leaders of the city have continuously organized dialogues to directly listen to the opinions of the people.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc then assigned the Government Inspectorate to clarify complaints in the capital.Thiem with a determined spirit to correct mistakes.

After nearly 4 months of investigation, in early September, the Government Inspectorate announced: Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Construction and the Government Office had committed violations. In particular, the City People's Committee over the periods had violated the planning approved by the Prime Minister in 1996 (reclaiming 4.3 hectares outside the boundary; taking resettlement land to give to 51 enterprises for projects...).

Ho Chi Minh City publicly apologized to Thu Thiem residents and focused all its efforts on correcting violations. Dozens of four-term city leaders were reviewed for their responsibilities.

Ho Chi Minh City chose Thu Thiem peninsula as the center of expansion, expected to be the most beautiful in Southeast Asia. The new urban area was approved by the Prime Minister in 1996, located on the East bank of the Saigon River, about 300 meters from District 1 as the crow flies. To carry out the "super project", the city mobilized nearly 30,000 billion VND for compensation and resettlement; 15,000 households were completely cleared... but the urban area has not yet taken shape, many places are still abandoned.

Record trade surplus

According to the General Department of Customs, the total import-export value of the country in the first 11 months of the year reached more than 440 billion USD. Accordingly, the total import-export turnover increased by nearly 52 billion USD compared to the same period in 2017.

However, domestic enterprises have not been able to surpass the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector in the trade balance, reaching only over 151 billion USD, while the FDI sector reached over 288 billion USD.

The target from the beginning of the year was for export growth of 10% and trade deficit of less than 3%. With what has been achieved in 11 months, the trade balance has turned the tide, continuing to have a surplus. Overall, Vietnam recorded a trade surplus of more than 7.4 billion USD, 2.5 times higher than the trade surplus of 2.92 billion USD in 2017 and the highest in the past 10 years. It is forecasted that Vietnam's trade surplus will continue to increase in December, possibly approaching the double-digit mark.

Contributing to this year's export turnover, phones of all kinds and components increased by 4.8 billion USD, textiles and garments increased by 4 billion USD; machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts increased by nearly 3.8 billion USD.

By the end of November 2018, Vietnam's trade in goods with all continents increased compared to the same period in 2017, with the strongest increase being in Oceania (up 18%) followed by the Americas (up 14.8%).

Police Chief Exposed

After 105 days of investigating a scammer who appropriated 110 phone cards, Phu Tho Provincial Police unexpectedly discovered the largest online gambling network disguised as card games in the country with more than 14 million participants and a revenue of more than 10,000 billion VND in just over 2 years of operation.

Not only that, the game publisher has an office right at the headquarters of the General Department of Police, is a front company of the police with a commitment to share 20% of profits with the General Department of Police.

The case became the focus, dispelling suspicions about the "forbidden zone" in the investigation when Phu Tho Provincial Police found out that the people who supported and condoned the illegal gambling activities were Mr. Phan Van Vinh, the current Director General of Police, and Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa, Director of the Department of High-Tech Crime Prevention.

GDP estimated to reach highest level in 10 years

"GDP in 2018 is estimated to reach 7%, the highest level in 10 years since the 2008 economic crisis," Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at the Vietnam Business Forum 2018 (VBF 2018) held in early December.

In terms of economic scale, the estimated figure is 5.5 quadrillion VND (about 240 billion USD). Vietnam's total trade turnover is currently equivalent to 200% of the economic scale, attracting FDI capital of more than 30 billion USD.

With this data, this year's growth exceeded the set target of 6.7%.

Given Vietnam's positive economic results, many international organizations, including the World Bank (WB), haveraise forecastVietnam's economic growth increased to 6.8%, compared to 6.5% at the beginning of the year, in the context of new geopolitical changes in the world, the US-China trade war has not ended and Vietnam's economy is assessed to be more or less affected.

Believing that Vietnam's growth "could even be higher than 6.8%", Mr. Ousman Dione - Country Director of the World Bank Vietnam commented that Vietnam's economy is highly resilient to external shocks, but in the context of complex global developments, Vietnam needs to prepare internal and external resources to be able to respond to global shocks.