Vietnam party meeting opens with leadership and economic growth on the line

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam’s most important political conclave began Monday, as the ruling Communist Party convened to decide the country’s leadership and broad policy course for the next five years.

A total of 1,586 delegates from across Vietnam gathered in the capital, Hanoi, for the National Congress, the party’s highest decision-making body, which meets every five years to elect its top leadership and set priorities shaping the country’s political and economic direction.

Delegates will elect about 200 members to the party’s Central Committee, which in turn appoints 17 to 19 members to the powerful Politburo in a tightly choreographed process.

Beyond settling the question of who will lead Vietnam through 2031, the Congress will also determine how the country’s single-party system responds to far more turbulent world, as the Southeast Asian export powerhouse pursues its ambitious goal of becoming a high-income economy by 2045 amid intensifying U.S.–China rivalry and a splintering global economy.

Here is what to expect.

Communist Party General Secretary To Lam is expected to be confirmed to a full five-year term.

A crucial question is whether he will also move to combine the roles of party chief and state president, as many diplomats and analysts expect. This will concentrate power in an echo of the political model of China under Xi Jinping and neighboring Laos.

Vietnam has traditionally been governed through a “four pillars” system, in which the party chief, president, prime minister and National Assembly chair balance one another. Collapsing those roles would weaken that arrangement and make To Lam the most powerful leader in Vietnam in decades.

He has overseen the most ambitious round of bureaucratic and economic reforms since the late 1980s, when Vietnam liberalized its economy, including cutting tens of thousands of public-sector jobs, redrawing administrative boundaries to speed decision-making, and initiating dozens of major infrastructure projects.

Lam spent decades in the Ministry of Public Security before becoming its minister in 2016. He led the anti-corruption campaign championed by his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong. His rise took place while Vietnam’s Politburo lost of six of its 18 members during an anti-corruption campaign, including two former presidents and Vietnam’s parliamentary head.

His faction within the party is aligned with the ministry while the other main grouping is close to the more conservative military, said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow in the Vietnam Studies Program at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.

He said conservatives were uneasy about Lam’s reform agenda, fearing the “Vietnamese socialist system could go astray,” and want conservative voices to remain within the leadership as a check on power concentration and to keep the country on a socialist path.

Hanging over the Congress is a defining national ambition: whether Vietnam can transform itself into a high-income country by 2045, a goal that will shape its politics, economy and its place in the world.

Delegates will finalizes a resolution of a draft released in October that aimed for an average annual GDP growth of 10% or more from 2026 to 2030, after falling short of the 6.5% to 7.0% growth target set for the first half of the decade. The country's 2025 GDP grew at 8%.

To do this, the draft calls for changing how the economy grows, with a focus on upgrading industry, modernizing production, and relying more on science, technology and digital tools to drive growth.

For instance, the military-run Viettel broke ground on its first semiconductor chipmaking plant in January. The project aims to begin trial production by 2027 and is part of Hanoi’s broader strategy to build high-tech capacity and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.

The draft also describes the private sector as “one of the most important driving forces of the economy,” underscoring To Lam’s emphasis on business-led growth and a shift away from the dominance of state-owned companies in the communist country.

Giang said To Lam may seek to deepen that approach by giving large private conglomerates a greater role in major projects across Vietnam.

The document also places “foreign affairs and international integration” on the same footing as national defense and security, underscoring how dependent Vietnam’s export-driven economy is on global markets and geopolitics.

The document also elevates environmental protection to a “central” task alongside economic and social development, a notable shift in Vietnam, where rapid growth has fueled worsening air pollution and other environmental pressures.

A security officer guards the entrance ofthe National Convention Center during the week-long Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

Honor guards stand in position at the National Convention Center for the week-long Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

Honor guards salute the arrival of delegation at the National Convention Center for the week-long Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

Delegates arrive at the National Convention Center for the week-long Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Landslides hit a campground and a house in New Zealand and emergency crews were trying to rescue people buried in rubble, officials said Thursday.

Emergency services were called to the slide at the base of Mount Maunganui on New Zealand’s North Island after 9:30 a.m. The rubble hit Beachside Holiday Park in a town named after the extinct volcano.

Police Superintendent Tim Anderson said the number of people missing was in the “single figures" but didn't say further how many were affected.

Another landslide hit a house overnight in the nearby Bay of Plenty community. Two people escaped the house but two others were missing, Anderson said. A rescue operation was underway there Thursday.

Further north near Warkworth, a man remained missing after floodwaters swept him from a road Wednesday morning as heavy rain lashed large swathes of the North Island, a police statement said.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon urged residents in affected areas to heed local authorities' safety advice during the extreme conditions.

“Extreme weather continues to cause dangerous conditions across the North Island. Right now, the government is doing everything we can to support those impacted,” Luxon posted on social media.

At Mount Maunganui, no survivor had been recovered three hours after the slide, Fire and Emergency NZ commander William Pike said.

“Members of the public ... tried to get into the rubble and did hear some voices,” Pike told reporters. “Our initial fire crew arrived and … were able to hear the same. Shortly after our initial crew arrived, we withdrew everyone from the site due to possible movement and slip."

No sign of life had been detected since, Pike said.

Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell said emergency crews were continuing a rescue operation at Mount Maunganui.

Mayor Mahe Drysdale said those unaccounted earlier had included people who had left the campground without notifying authorities. The campground was closed after the disaster.

Australian tourist Sonny Worrall said he was lazing in hot pools within the campground when he heard then saw the landslide.

“I looked behind me and there’s a huge landslide coming down. And I’m still shaking from it now,” Worrall told New Zealand 1News news service. “I turned around and I had to jump out from my seat as fast as I could and just run.”

He looked back to see the rubble carrying a travel trailer behind him.

“It was like the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Worrall said.

In this image from a video, a police officer with dog searches people near the site of a landlide at the base of Mount Maunganui on New Zealand’s North Island Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (TVNZ via AP)

In this image from a video, rescuers and fire crews work near the site of a landlide at the base of Mount Maunganui on New Zealand’s North Island Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (TVNZ via AP)