Vietnam Leaders Stats

Truong Tan Sang was elected to the largely ceremonial post of president in July 2011 with 97% of the vote in parliament.

He is a former mayor and party chief in Ho Chi Minh City. Before becoming president he served as the de facto Number 2 in charge of the Communist Party, running its day-to-day affairs.

Born in 1949, he was imprisoned from 1971-73 by the US-backed South Vietnamese government when he served as a communist fighter for the north during the Vietnam War. It ended in 1975 when the north seized control of the former southern capital, Saigon, reunifying the country.

The prime minister runs the country's day-to-day operations. The National Assembly, or parliament, was viewed in the past as a rubber stamp that blindly passes the government's policies. In recent years, however, it has started to assert itself more.

Nguyen Tan Dung was elected to the post by parliament in 2006 and re-elected in July 2011, at the recommendation of the Communist Party.

The former Viet Cong communist guerrilla and one-time central bank governor is considered a reformer, but Vietnam - one of the fastest growing countries in Asia - has struggled with economic woes during his tenure.

Correspondents say his record is mixed. He has been a strong supporter of state-owned conglomerates, such as the shipbuilding group Vinashin, which was revealed to be near bankruptcy in 2010 and restructured.

He came under public pressure to resign after several top Vinashin officials were jailed for their roles in the scandal, but he was spared disciplinary action by the Communist Party.

Private economists generally deride his embrace of lumbering state firms, saying the sector warps the competitive environment, saps precious capital needed elsewhere and is a major source of economic inefficiencies.

In June 2013, Mr Dung survived a no-confidence ballot in the national assembly, but with his position weakened after more than 30 per cent of its members voted against him.

Under Nguyen Tan Dung's leadership, international human rights groups accuse Vietnam of taking a tougher stance against political dissidents, including those peacefully expressing their views online. The government does not tolerate any threat to its one-party rule, and people can be jailed for publicly calling for a multiparty system.