Vietnam appoints top policeman as country's new president

HANOI: Vietnam's parliament elected police minister To Lam as the state president on Wednesday , in a move analysts see as a"stepping stone" for Lam to bid later for the position of chief of the ruling Communist Party, the country's top job.

That in turn is denting the country's appeal among foreign investors, who mostly reduced their securities holdings in recent months in coincidence with bad political news. It is also paralysing the public administration, with billions of dollars in foreign aid and public funds unspent. Political infighting is expected to temporarily abate after Lam's election, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor and Vietnam expert at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.

"With the elevation to the office of president, it becomes clear that there are more ambitions for To Lam than retirement," said Florian Feyerabend, the representative in Vietnam for Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a think tank, noting the position could be a"launch pad" to win the party chief job.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has assigned Deputy Minister of Public Security Tran Quoc To, 62, to temporarily head the ministry, online newspaper VietnamNet cited a government decision as saying.Lam's rise has not been without controversy.

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