Vietnam's Central Committee drafts new rules on Party members running private businesses

The Communist Party of Vietnam opened the fourth plenum of its 14th Central Committee in Hanoi on 5 October and, on the afternoon of 6 October, broke into working groups on a draft regulation governing Party members' participation in investment and business. VnExpress and Nhan Dan, the Party's own newspaper, both reported that the draft is intended to replace Regulation 15-QD/TW, issued by the 10th Central Committee on 28 August 2006, which has governed Party members in private economic activity for two decades. General Secretary and President To Lam, who chaired the plenum, told delegates that Party membership requires exemplary responsibility and cannot create business privileges, and that support policies must rest on public and equal criteria without discriminating by whether an owner holds a Party card. The plenum runs to 8 October.

What the plenum put on the table

VietnamPlus, the English service of the Vietnam News Agency, reported that the opening session on 5 October was presided over by Politburo member Tran Thanh Man, with To Lam delivering the opening speech. The plenary agenda ran to a draft Central Committee resolution on strengthening Party and political system building and rectification; a five-year review of Resolution 28-NQ/TW of 17 November 2022, the 13th Central Committee's document on renewing the Party's leadership and ruling methods; and a review of Resolution 26-NQ/TW of 19 May 2018 on building strategic-level cadres. Personnel business included electing additional members of the Central Inspection Commission and renaming the Party Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and central mass organisations.

Nhan Dan listed the three documents sent to group discussion on 6 October: a national strategy for attracting talent into key sectors, the rules on Party members' involvement in investment and business, and a set of regulations on Party inspection, supervision and discipline that would replace Regulation 21-QD/TW of 11 April 2026. Taking a replacement for a regulation issued only six months earlier back into the Central Committee is itself a signal about how fast the discipline framework is being rewritten under the 14th Congress.

Why Regulation 15 is the binding instrument

The constraint here is internal, not statutory. Regulation 15-QD/TW sits in the Party's own disciplinary order and applies to members irrespective of what commercial law allows them to do, which is why a member who falls foul of it faces Party sanction rather than a court. That is also why the rewrite is being handled as a Central Committee document and not as a government decree, and why VietnamPlus reported the drafting sitting with the Commission for Policy and Strategy rather than with a ministry.

VietnamPlus reported on 14 September that To Lam, working with the Commission for Policy and Strategy, said the right of Party members to engage in lawful economic activity must be clearly recognised, tied to specific legal status, duties and responsibilities. The framework under preparation is to distinguish between categories of member, including public-sector employees, officials, armed-forces personnel and leaders of state enterprises, and to assess members on tax compliance, treatment of workers, environmental protection and occupational safety rather than on financial contributions to the Party. The same report said the Commission for Policy and Strategy leads the drafting, with the Government Party Committee reviewing affected laws and proposing implementation timelines and the National Assembly Party Committee handling legislative follow-up.

That division of labour is the mechanism to watch. A Party regulation cannot by itself change the Law on Enterprises, the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants or the Anti-Corruption Law, so the operative question is which statutes the Government Party Committee identifies for amendment and on what calendar.

The growth arithmetic behind the timing

The rewrite is being pushed through in the middle of a growth drive. Nikkei Asia reported from the 14th National Congress in January that To Lam set a target of at least 10 percent annual GDP growth for 2026-2030. Politburo Resolution 68-NQ/TW of 4 May 2025 had already named the private sector the most important driving force of the national economy, targeting 2 million active enterprises, annual private-sector growth of 10 to 12 percent and a 55-58 percent share of GDP by 2030, against 42.3 percent when the resolution was issued.

The National Statistics Office, which sits under the Ministry of Finance, reported on 3 October that GDP rose 9.95 percent year on year in the third quarter, the fastest quarter of the year, after 8.15 percent in the first and 8.81 percent in the second, for nine-month growth of 9.01 percent. Industry and construction grew 12.50 percent in the quarter and accounted for 51.57 percent of the increase in value added; exports of goods and services rose 23.27 percent and imports 28.75 percent. Twelve of 34 provincial-level localities recorded double-digit growth, led by Quang Ninh at 12.54 percent. Bloomberg reported on 5 October that officials were nonetheless warning of challenges to the 10 percent ambition. To Lam told the plenum that 2027 must be a year of acceleration and breakthroughs, with institutional reform and investment conditions the named levers.

Charter revision and the hundred-year frame

On 7 October the Central Committee moved to the outline of amendments to the Party Charter, alongside a review of the Party's first century from 1930 to 2030 and a development vision running to 2130, VnExpress reported. The stated ambition for 2130 is a highly developed, civilised and modern socialist country ranking among Asia's leading green and innovative economies. To Lam said the exercise requires thinking beyond the limits of a single term.

For a strategic-studies reader the charter work is the frame that decides how far the business regulation can go. If members' private economic activity is written into the charter revision rather than left in a stand-alone regulation, it becomes harder for a later leadership to reverse, and the conflict-of-interest boundary between office and ownership becomes a constitutional question inside the Party rather than an administrative one. The plenum's closing session on 8 October will show which of the four documents emerge as adopted resolutions and which go back for redrafting.

Sources

• Nhan Dan — 14th Party Central Committee convenes fourth plenum
• Nhan Dan — Second working day of 14th Party Central Committee's fourth plenum
• VietnamPlus (VNA) — First working day of Party Central Committee's fourth plenum
• VnExpress — Trung uong ban quy dinh dang vien tham gia dau tu, kinh doanh
• VnExpress — Trung uong thao luan de cuong sua doi Dieu le Dang
• VietnamPlus (VNA) — Top leader calls for clearer rules on Party members engaged in private business
• VietnamPlus (VNA) — Vietnam posts GDP growth of 9.95% in Q3
• VietnamPlus (VNA) — Resolution 68: private economic sector affirms principal driver of growth, innovation
• Nikkei Asia — Vietnam targets GDP growth of at least 10% in 2026-2030, To Lam says
• Bloomberg — Vietnam Warns of 'Challenges' to Hitting Lofty 10% Growth Goal