Hanoi - Fighting inflation and 'hostile forces' are top priorities for Vietnam, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said Wednesday as the National Assembly approved members of the new cabinet.
The government needs to curb inflation and stabilize the economy, the premier said, and 'actively prevent and foil all plots and acts of sabotage launched by hostile forces.'
The assembly approved 26 cabinet members proposed by the prime minister.
Dung's own nomination for a second five-year term was approved in a largely symbolic parliamentary vote last week, after being put forward by the Communist Party in January.
Dung named four deputy prime ministers, 18 ministers and four heads of ministerial-level agencies. All were approved, with the majority receiving over 90 per cent of votes.
Some new faces in the cabinet are not expected to have much impact on policy, according to Martin Gainsborough, author of the book Vietnam: Rethinking the State.
Power tends to be brokered between different factions, each led by a senior politician, he explained.
Within each faction, a hierarchy based on patronage, family connections and favours takes precedence over strong personalities.
'People then line up behind different positions which sometimes have to do with [national] policy,' he said.
The country is currently facing one of the worst inflation rates in the world at 22 per cent year-on-year and has a double-digit trade deficit.
It has also received criticism for its human rights record, with an increase in arrests of dissidents in the run-up to the Party Congress in January.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Tuesday expressed 'serious concerns' about human rights in Vietnam.
He referred in particular to the case of lawyer Vu Huy Ha Vu, whose seven-year-sentence for propagandizing against the state was upheld by an appeals court the same day.
Authorities are holding at least 486 political and religious prisoners, according to Human Rights Watch.
-Nguồn:Vietnam's new cabinet to fight inflation and "hostile forces"
