HANOI, 21 January, 2021, (TON): Selecting leaders, setting policy and to help shape the country’s global role for the next five years, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party gathers for a congress next week.

The Communist Party’s 13th Congress, from January 25 to February 2, will call for leadership that looks at burgeoning Vietnam’s economic success to strengthen legitimacy. The pivotal is to mend the relations with China and the U.S.

Sustaining with the redirection of global trade in its favor because of a U.S.- China row, Vietnam is steadily growing into one of the world’s most important tech manufacturing hubs, as well as a centre for garment-making, in an economy on track to recover faster than most after the corona virus pandemic.

Le Hong Hiep, of the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore said, the U.S. China strategic competition will continue to destabilize the regional geo-strategic and economic environment over the next five years”.

Further added, this is a major challenge for Vietnam given that the Vietnamese economy is very open and highly dependent on international trade and foreign investment”.

 “Vietnam’s leaders will have to learn how to minimize negative impacts and take advantage of the opportunities, especially the trade and investment diversion from China,” said Hiep.

The annual average GDP of Vietnam grew 6.0% over the past five years and still expanded 2.9% in 2020 despite the pandemic.

Vietnam is one of the last five Communist-ruled countries in the world besides China, Cuba, Laos and North Korea - has seen its economy outstrip much of Asia in the past year, and is already eyeing average GDP growth of 7.0% over the next five years