Nguyen Tan Dung

Dung, Nguyen Tan (nəwēˈĭn tän dŭng) [key], 1949–, Vietnamese political leader. Educated in Vietnam, he received a bachelor's degree in law. A career security officer, Dung joined the Vietnamese Communist party in 1967 and rose through the party ranks to become (1996) a member of its politburo. He was (1995–96) Vietnam's deputy interior minister and an officer (1997–98) of the national bank. He became a deputy prime minister in 1997 and first deputy prime minister in 2006. Later that year he was named prime minister, and in 2007 the National Assembly confirmed him for a five-year term. The youngest prime minister since Vietnamese unification (1975), Dung is considered a pragmatic economic reformer.

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