Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Fri, 2 Oct 1992 13:55:12 -0400
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      NEWS/VN: VN prepares for peace with new ministry

10/01

Vietnam prepares for peace with new ministry

    By Kathleen Callo
    HANOI, Oct 1, Reuter - Vietnam's national assembly on Thursday approved a
new National Defence and Security Council, which President Le Duc Anh said was
aimed at charting a new peacetime security strategy after decades of war.
    Deputies also approved a new cabinet replacing the ministers of energy and
health and creating a ministry to promote technical training, the state-run
Vietnam news agency reported.
    Anh, 72, heads the new council, which replaces a wartime National Defence
Council. He told reporters it was meant to modernise the way Vietnam addressed
defence and security issues in peacetime.
    Anh, a general elected president on September 23, took part in some of the
biggest battles against the French and then against the Americans until their
withdrawal in 1973.
    He later commanded Vietnamese army divisions that invaded Cambodia on
December 25, 1978, to oust a Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge government.
    Former president Vo Chi Cong was head of the old National Defence Council.
Cong, 79, retired from the party politburo in June 1991.
    The lawmakers also streamlined some ministries to cut bureaucracy and
upgraded state committees dealing with foreign investment and youth.
    Government spokeswoman Ho The Lan told a news conference on Thursday the
changes were meant to make the government work better.
    "The new government will be formed...with some streamlining adjustments in
order to avoid overlapping in work, to make for more effective performance, as
well as to create a clearer delineation of state management of the government,"
she said.
    But the changes were far fewer than foreign diplomats had expected
following the assembly's re-election of Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet on
September 24 for a five-year term.
    Vietnamese present during the last few days of debate told Reuters the
assembly had overruled recommendations by Kiet to make more extensive
ministerial changes.
    Deputies appointed Thai Phung Ne, a top engineer at the Hoa Binh hydropower
plant, as energy minister, replacing Vu Ngoc Hai. That job took on new
importance this year after Vietnam started constructing a north-south electric
transmission line.
    Nguyen Trong Nhan was made minister of health, replacing Pham Song.
Vietnamese media accused Song last year of abusing his position by moving into
a government villa that had been designated for use as a state office.
    Deputies approved the new ministerial appointments after an earlier
recommendation by Kiet and two days of debate.
    The assembly approved the president's recommendation to appoint Kiet
vice-president of the National Defence and Security Council, created under a
constitution passed last April.
    The other members are Defence Minister Doan Khue, Interior Minister Bui
Thien Ngo, Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam and national assembly chairman Nong
Duc Manh.
    Five of the six men on the council, excluding Cam, are members of the
party's 13-member politburo.
    The assembly approved Kiet's recommendation to upgrade the State Science
Committee, headed by Dang Huu, into the new Ministry of Science, Technology and
Environment.
    The Ministry of Culture, Information and Sports became the Ministry of
Culture and Information, while the Ministry of Trade and Tourism was trimmed
back to Ministry of Trade.
    The assembly also reappointed Vietnam's three deputy prime ministers, Phan
Van Khai, Nguyen Khanh and Tran Duc Luong.
    Deputies upgraded the state committees on cooperation and investment,
population and family planning, care and protection of children, ethnic
minorities and mountainous regions and the state planning committee by
upgrading the committee chairmen to ministers.
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