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Vietnam: Nguyen Phu Trong (born 14 April 1944) General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (2011- )

Vietnam: Nguyen Phu Trong (born 14 April 1944) General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (2011- )

Nguyễn Phú Trọng (born 14 April 1944) is the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, elected at the party's 11th National Congress on 19 January 2011. Trong heads the party's Secretariat, as well as the Central Military Commission, the country's two most powerful policymaking bodies.

Trọng was born in Đông Hội Commune, Đông Anh District, Hanoi. His official biography gives his family background only as 'poor peasant'. He studied philology at Vietnam National University, Hanoi from 1963-67. Trọng officially joined the Communist Party in December 1968. He worked for the Tạp chí Cộng Sản (Communist Review), the theoretical and political agency of the Communist Party of Vietnam in the periods of 1967-73, 1976–80, and 1983–96. From 1991-96, he served as the editor-in-chief of the Tạp chí Cộng Sản.

Trọng has been member of the Party's Central Committee since January 1994, member of the Party's Political Bureau since December 1997, and deputy to the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam since May 2002. From January 2000 to June 2006, Trọng was secretary of the Party's Executive Committee of Hanoi, the de facto head of the city authority. On 26 June 2006, Trọng was elected as the Chairman of the National Assembly.

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