Once beacon of stability, Vietnam to name third president in a year

investing.com:

By Francesco Guarascio and Khanh Vu

HANOI (Reuters) -Vietnam is seeking its third president in little more than a year after its ruling Communist Party on Wednesday forced the resignation of Vo Van Thuong, who was only elected last year after the sudden dismissal of his predecessor.

With accumulated foreign direct investment higher than its gross domestic product, Vietnam's stability is crucial to multinationals with large operations in the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub, including Samsung Electronics (KS:005930), which ships from Vietnam half of its smartphones, and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which has many key suppliers in the country.

That stability, which has been guaranteed for decades by a state tightly controlled by the Communist Party, now looks less certain, although analysts agree that the current leadership changes will not impact the country's key policies, including its «bamboo diplomacy» aimed at keeping good relations with the United States and China at the same time.

Behind the latest reshuffle is the long-lasting «blazing furnace» anti-graft campaign that party chief Nguyen Phu Trong launched back in 2016. It is aimed at eradicating corruption so widespread that in some provinces up to 90% of applicants for land certificates paid a bribe, according to a report published in March 2023 by the U.N. Development Programme and other organisations.

The campaign intensified over the last two years, with critics saying it has been increasingly used for political purposes by party factions competing for power.

Thuong, 53, stands accused of having violated party rules, according to a statement issued on Wednesday, which did not clarify what exactly he did wrong.

He quit days after police announced the arrest for