US embassy cable - 03HANOI1362

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HANOI 001362 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958:  NA 
TAGS: PGOV, SOCI, VM, DPOL 
SUBJECT:  Cadre Rotation - Grooming the next generation of 
leaders 
 
 
1.  (U)  Summary:  Vietnam is attempting to breathe new life 
into "cadre rotation" in order to train the next generation 
of leaders as well as to improve the quality of government 
service and to fight systemic local corruption.  Cadre 
rotation was common during wartime and in the years 
immediately after unification, but had declined in more 
recent decades.  Following renewed attention by the 
Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), new rotations take place 
at two levels:  between national ministerial-level positions 
and provincial leadership jobs, and between provincial 
department-level positions and district leadership jobs. 
The CPV's personnel apparatus controls the entire process. 
Almost all rotated individuals are CPV members because "a 
high sense of political awareness" is required for 
leadership positions in Vietnam.  Provincial-level 
implementation varies throughout the country and individual 
participation is sometimes unenthusiastic.  Rotation is in 
the final analysis a tool by central authorities to enhance 
control and diminish the strength of local, potentially 
competing sources of power. End Summary. 
 
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Party Resolution Eleven 
----------------------- 
 
2.  (U)  CPV Politburo Resolution Eleven of January 25, 
2002, renewed emphasis on cadre rotation for party, 
government, Vietnam Fatherland Front, and State-owned 
enterprise officials.  Although the practice had never 
completely died out, according to several CPV and GVN 
officials it had become less and less systematic after the 
mid- to late-1970's.  Party leaders have pointed out that, 
after the next CPV Congress in 2006, all or almost all 
senior officials will have had no pre-1975 experience.  CPV 
personnel officials reportedly designed the new rotation 
system to build the experience of capable younger officials 
to ready them for more senior positions.  As such, the focus 
of rotation is not on filling jobs, but on developing 
leadership expertise and ensuring that the next generation 
of leaders has a broad range of experience, including at 
grassroots levels. 
 
3.  (U)  Reviving rotation has been a rather slow, 
deliberate process.  When poloffs first asked central and 
provincial authorities about implementing cadre rotation in 
mid-2002, the answer was that they had done little and could 
not say much about it yet, apart from a few test cases. 
Officials were hazy about practical details, such as 
available housing for incoming officials (especially 
officials sent to Hanoi) and arrangements for family members 
(do they stay behind?  do they come along?  what about jobs 
for spouses and schooling for children?)  However, in March 
and April 2003, the CPV Central Organization and Personnel 
Commission, headed by fourteenth-ranked Politburo member, 
Tran Dinh Hoan (also a member of the CPV Secretariat and 
head of the main Party school, the Ho Chi Minh Political 
Academy),A organized meetings -- one in Phu Tho province for 
northern officials and one in Ho Chi Minh City for southern 
officials -- for provincial-level officials to discuss 
implementation of the program.  According to an article by 
Hoan in the April 15 edition of the CPV mouthpiece, Nhan 
Dan, since the beginning of 2002, only 28 cadres rotated 
between national/province posts along with over 1,200 
between provincial/district posts.  In addition, over 200 
cadres rotated between different national-level positions. 
 
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Rotation of Provincial Cadres -- Phu Tho 
---------------------------------------- 
 
4.  (U)  Poloffs recently met with Phu Tho provincial 
officials to discuss cadre rotation.  Tran Dinh Hoan had 
singled out several provinces for their work on cadre 
rotation, naming Phu Tho first.  This province is about 40 
km northwest of Hanoi astride the Red River, comprising the 
upper reaches of the Red River Delta and a large proportion 
of hilly land.  The population is about 1,300,000, 90% 
ethnic majority Kinh.  The poverty rate is about 12%. 
 
5.  (U)  According to Bui Hung, head of the provincial CPV 
Personnel Committee, an individual's "talent" more than any 
other factor determines participation in the program.  The 
CPV exercises the "leading role" over all personnel matters, 
including governmental rotations, he admitted.  The program 
is part of the overall provincial personnel development 
plan, Hung added.  Its particular purpose is to improve the 
quality of leaders and managers who have already received 
considerable training; the rotation is also integrated with 
other educational and training opportunities.  Further 
selection criteria include political, "conduct," and health 
considerations.  Hung noted that the province had to pay 
special attention to providing "good conditions" for 
officials rotated to remote areas.  These include free 
housing and financial support.  Phu Tho had applied the new 
rotation policy to management officials first, especially to 
those familiar with economics, and moved them into positions 
where they could apply their training and experience.  He 
added that Phu Tho had already rotated about 100 officials 
under the program.  Also, one Phu Tho official (whom he 
declined to name) had already rotated to a national-level 
CPV post. 
 
6.  (U)  Hung claimed that the system of selecting cadre for 
the current program was different than in past cadre 
rotation cycles (although he declined to specify how).  The 
province's rotation plan is being carried out in several 
phases and is based on available staff, he noted.  A primary 
consideration is an evaluation of who is most suitable for a 
new post.  Participating officials all have considerable 
work experience and have risen to at least the level of vice 
chairman of a district, or deputy director of a provincial- 
level department.  Generally, they will remain responsible 
for areas in which they already have expertise, serving 
instead in a different location.  Officials can be rotated 
not just from government post to government post, but also 
to or from Party or mass organization positions.  Except for 
some individuals responsible for specific economic matters, 
for instance at state-owned enterprises, all rotated persons 
are CPV members, he admitted.  Hung explained that, from the 
district level up, political considerations are "very 
important," hence the need for CPV membership as a 
prerequisite. 
 
------------------------------------ 
Bac Ninh:  Focus on Junior Officials 
------------------------------------ 
 
8.  (U)  Bac Ninh is the smallest province in Vietnam, but 
is densely populated with a population of almost one 
million.  Located just north of Hanoi, it has a long history 
of providing state officials.  According to one Bac Ninh 
leader, two thirds of Vietnam's Confucian doctorate-level 
scholars came from Bac Ninh in the imperial days.  He also 
noted the province's long history as a center of Buddhism in 
Vietnam.  However, it has only existed as a separate 
province since 1997. 
 
9.  (U)  Bac Ninh officials admitted that there had as yet 
been very little cadre rotation in the province in the wake 
of Resolution Eleven.  Officials framed cadre rotation as 
part of overall personnel training and development 
activities.  Bac Ninh has been concentrating its personnel 
development efforts on commune-level officials (who are 
still too junior to be rotated under the current program) 
since "they actually implement policies."  It was important 
to make sure that they had a good foundation of knowledge so 
that they could implement "grassroots democracy," another 
major CPV theme over the past several years.  Training 
provided by the provincial CPV academy was key to this.  The 
school's curriculum follows a national model, but officials 
emphasized that they took pains to make courses more focused 
and interesting by illustrating issues with local subjects. 
Over time, the academy's courses lead to a bachelor's degree 
in "Theory and Philosophy."  Officials claimed that 90% (or 
391) of provincial and district officials had received such 
a degree already and that the remaining 10% were currently 
working on it. 
 
10.  Director Tien of the CPV Personnel Committee for Bac 
Ninh echoed the goals of cadre rotation:  to build 
experience and to provide a better grasp of issues. 
Rotation creates an opportunity for senior personnel to 
excel in a new environment.  Those rotated are to be capable 
of significant additional advancement, so the program is 
primarily for officials under 45; those over the age of 50 
are not considered at all, he claimed.  However, he also 
emphasized rotation's importance in fighting "regionalism, 
localism, and branchism."  Preventing officials from 
becoming too entrenched and connected to particular 
interests is a major goal, like the supposed practice of 
rotating customs officials every six months. 
 
11.  (U)  In order to participate in cadre rotation, 
officials must have a professional and a theoretical 
(political) bachelor's degree, Bac Ninh officials explained. 
The province is currently reviewing existing personnel plans 
and determining what must be done to implement Resolution 
Eleven more fully.  They explained their slow implementation 
by claiming that Resolution Eleven's guidelines require 
pilot projects first and that the Phu Tho conference had 
been to review the lessons learned.  Now Bac Ninh was also 
ready to move forward, provincial officials claimed. 
 
12.  (U)  Provincial officials added that some of the 
greatest difficulties lie in administering the details, such 
as how to deal with benefits and pensions, particularly when 
one moves from one sector to another (e.g. from government 
to mass organization to Party).  Tien noted that cadre 
rotation should actually be relatively easy to implement 
within Bac Ninh due to its small size.  One could feasibly 
rotate between district and provincial levels without 
changing residences -- something often not possible in 
larger provinces such as Phu Tho. 
 
-------------------------- 
National Level Perspective 
-------------------------- 
 
13.  (U)  Director General of the Personnel Management 
Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) Tran Anh 
Tuan, responsible for the management of all civil servants 
throughout Vietnam, also reviewed cadre rotation with 
poloffs.  He spoke primarily about the national/provincial- 
level, but some of his remarks apply to the 
provincial/district-level as well.  "High-level" personnel 
make decisions about rotation, he admitted.  Variations in 
living standards complicate implementation of these 
decisions, however.  Officials are often reluctant to move 
to remote and mountainous areas with limited educational and 
cultural opportunities.  It is also difficult to find vacant 
positions in "very popular places" such as Ho Chi Minh City. 
Identifying personnel in remote provinces sufficiently 
qualified for rotation is another challenge, he added.  Even 
so, part of the reason for the program is to help narrow 
gaps between different parts of the country by bringing 
qualified people to serve in and be exposed to the problems 
of difficult and remote areas, he explained. 
 
---------------------- 
National/Local Tension 
---------------------- 
 
14.  (U)  Director General Tuan said that before the CPV had 
reemphasized cadre rotation with Resolution Eleven, 
provincial personnel decisions were left to individual 
provinces.  He alleged that this often resulted in entire 
provinces being "limited" by the sometimes-low capability of 
the provincial chairman.  The usually close professional and 
personal relationships between successive chairmen also 
limited creativity, he said, a cycle that perpetuated 
endemic weaknesses.  This also led to sentiments against 
outsiders coming into a province -- another manifestation of 
what Bac Ninh's Tien called "localism." 
 
15.  (U)  DG Tuan explained that the rotation system was 
intended, in part, to break up this cycle and thus narrow 
gaps between provinces.  He noted that while preparing 
Resolution Eleven, Vietnam had studied personnel rotation 
systems in non-Communist countries for the first time, 
especially those in Japan and Singapore.  Vietnam did not 
have the economic capability to follow those examples, with 
rotations every two years, but was trying to use other 
elements of their systems, he added. 
 
16.  (U)  The rotation program has only been genuinely 
underway for six months at the national level, so only a few 
rotations have taken place and there has been no review yet, 
according to DG Tuan.  Some provinces have not shown much 
"adaptive capacity," he commented, so implementation has 
been spotty.  Rotated officials need to be supported, for 
instance in the provision of housing in the new location. 
While this is less difficult at the national level, it is a 
serious financial burden for many provinces, he pointed out. 
Moreover, it is difficult for officials rotated to distant 
provinces to stay far away from their families.  They tend 
to return home every weekend, making it difficult for 
officials to get to know their assigned provinces as well as 
they should.  Furthermore, DG Tuan noted, this limits their 
participation in the important informal relationship- 
building and after-hours discussions of issues that 
characterize GVN and CPV governance.  It was relatively easy 
to rotate cadre during wartime, but officials are not so 
willing during peace, he lamented. 
 
17.  (U)  Comment:  Cadre rotation serves functions 
including grooming a new generation of leaders, improving 
leadership in backwater provinces, and perhaps hindering 
corruption by breaking up local "mafias."  In order to be 
effective in their new positions, rotated officials must be 
sufficiently dynamic and collegial to overcome their 
outsider status, however.  Presumably, this is not an 
ineffective way to determine whether promising leaders are 
fit for higher positions.  It is also a way for the CPV, 
particularly its higher levels, to assert its control over 
the outlook and composition of leadership, not only at the 
national-level, but in the provinces too.  The tension 
between local and central authority in Vietnam has a long 
history;  rotation -- whether of Confucian mandarins or of 
Communist cadres -- has been and is likely to remain an 
important tool used by central authorities to break up real 
and potentially competing local power structures. 
PORTER