Mid-Year Review
GDP, Energy, and Public Spending
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Somehow we’re already halfway through 2024, so let’s look back at how things have gone thus far.
Where to begin when assessing the first six months of 2024 for Vietnam?
Trương Mỹ Lan was sentenced to death for one of the largest financial crimes in history, though she has appealed that verdict. The fallout from that scandal will continue, especially as the State Bank of Vietnam pumps more money into Saigon Commercial Bank to keep it from collapsing.
There’s been no shortage of political fireworks ostensibly linked to the anti-corruption campaign: President Võ Văn Thưởng resigned in March; National Assembly chairman Vương Đình Huệ stepped down the following month; and Trương Thị Mai, Permanent Member of the Secretariat, was forced out in May.
Two weeks ago Đinh Tiến Dũng, the former Minister of Finance and yet another Politburo member, resigned.
The common thread through these developments is that no specific crimes or actions were ever announced, other than “violations and shortcomings” that harmed the credibility of the government.
Tô Lâm is now president, having given up (perhaps begrudgingly) his powerful role as Minister of Public Security, while Trần Thanh Mẫn took over as National Assembly chairman. Several new Politburo members have been appointed, but I’m unfamiliar with them.
The run-up to the next National Congress in 2026 will probably deliver more bombshells, but right now I’m more interested in an issue that’s at least tangentially linked to this campaign: the government is simply not spending its money.