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Vietnam's Laid-Off Communist Officials Face Uncertain Future
The Straits Times
|July 07, 2025
Sipping green tea in his garden of roses, former communist party official Nguyen Van Cuong said he is "jobless but happy" after Vietnam cut 80,000 state roles recently.
HANOI - Sipping green tea in his garden of roses, former communist party official Nguyen Van Cuong said he is "jobless but happy" after Vietnam cut 80,000 state roles recently.
But Ms Nguyen Thi Thu, fretting at home after leaving public employment once considered a job for life, told AFP she feels "empty" over a future that is no longer certain.
Vietnam is in the midst of a dramatic remaking of its state apparatus, with 100,000 positions slated to be scrapped as Hanoi seeks to streamline bureaucracy and boost the economy.
On June 30, 80,000 roles were slashed as most of the provinces and cities were merged.
Feelings are mixed among newly unemployed apparatchiks - communist party officials whose jobs were once guaranteed.
"It's really a waste for the state to lose one like myself," said 56-year-old Mr Cuong, who served in Bac Giang province outside Hanoi. It was merged into a neighboring province's administration.
This story is from the July 07, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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