Topic: Nguyen Minh Triet

Nguyễn Minh Triết (born October 9, 1942) is the President of Vietnam. He was elected by the National Assembly of Vietnam with 464 votes (94.12%) on June 27, 2006. He was previously the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Hồ Chí Minh City. The presidency of Vietnam is a ceremonial position and the Politburo decides government policy. Triết was the fourth ranking member of the Politburo from 2006 to 2011. His term as president will expire in May. Senior Politburo member Trương Tấn Sang has been designated to succeed him.

Triết was born in Bến Cát district, Bình Dương province, Việt Nam. After teaching Mathematics in Saigon, Triết joined the Party in 1965 in southern Vietnam, during the Second Indochina War (Vietnam War) that involved the United States. He is among the top leaders of Vietnam who are native southerners and one of the few that had not regrouped to the North following the division of the country in 1954 (he was only 12 at the time). In 1992, he was appointed party chief of southern Sông Bé province. He guided the largely agricultural province into an attractive destination for foreign direct investment.

He ascended to the Politburo in 1997 and became Party head of Hồ Chí Minh City in 2000. In that position, he oversaw a campaign against organized crime and corruption, including the arrest and execution of underworld kingpin Trương Văn Cam, known as Nam Cam.