Communist Vietnam seeks to cut 1 in 5 govt jobs

Hanoi, Feb 11: Vietnam is aiming to cut one in five public sector jobs and slash billions of dollars from government budgets, mirroring US President Donald Trump's push to take a hatchet to spending.

The drive -- due to go before the rubber-stamp parliament in the coming days -- is creating unease in a communist country where working for the state long meant a job for life.

Vietnam's top leader To Lam, who half a year ago became Communist Party general secretary following the death of his predecessor, has said that state agencies should not be "safe havens for weak officials".

"If we want to have a healthy body, sometimes we must take bitter medicine and endure pain to remove tumours," Lam said in December.

The reforms, described as "a revolution" by senior officials, will see the number of government ministries and agencies slashed from 30 to 22. The media, the civil service, the police and the military will all face cuts.

Almost two million people worked in the public sector as of 2022, and one in five of these jobs will go over the next five years, according to the government.

Of those cuts, 100,000 people will be made redundant or offered early retirement, but it has yet to offer clarity on how the much larger target will be reached.

Some have already been given notice, like Thanh, a pseudonym to protect his identity, who told AFP his 12-year career as a TV producer was "aggressively" terminated last month.

The state-controlled news channel where he worked was shuttered, one of five broadcasters already closed, and the father-of-two was given two weeks' notice.

"It is painful to talk about," said the 42-year-old, who has turned to driving a taxi.

Building on stellar economic growth of 7.1 percent in 2024, Vietnam -- a global manufacturing hub heavily reliant on exports -- is aiming for eight percent this year.

But anxiety is mounting over the country's potential vulnerability to tariffs under the new Trump administration.(AFP)