Vietnam’s pandemic response leader sworn in as president

The man behind Vietnam's successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, was formally sworn in as president in Hanoi yesterday. Phuc, 66, was Vietnam's prime minister for the last five years, a period in which the economy boomed, and his government's Covid-19 response won plaudits at home and abroad. Following secret voting yesterday, Phuc scored the maximum votes among the almost 500-member rubber-stamp national assembly. "This is his well-deserved award," said Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnamese politics expert from New Zealand's Victoria University of Wellington.