Vietnam’s Vice-State President Vo Thi Anh Xuan was appointed Acting State President of Vietnam on Wednesday following the resignation of State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, according to the Vietnamese legislature's announcement.

Xuan will remain Acting State President until the lawmaking National Assembly (NA) elects a new head of state, NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said in a notice he signed on behalf of the NA Standing Committee on Wednesday.

The notice was released under Resolution No. 83/2023/QH15 adopted at the 15th NA’s third extraordinary meeting on the same day, pursuant to the Constitution and the Law on the Organization of the NA.

Xuan’s appointment came after the Vietnamese Party Central Committee (PCC) on Tuesday agreed to let Phuc retire and quit the posts of a member of the Politburo and of the 13th PCC upon his request.

He also left the position as chairman of the Council of National Defense and Security.

A similar designation previously happened when State President Tran Dai Quang died of illness in September 2018 and then-Vice State President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh served as interim president.

Xuan, born in 1970 in southern An Giang Province, is a member of the 12th and 13th PCC.

With a bachelor's degree in chemistry pedagogy and a master’s in public governance, Xuan used to work as a high school teacher in An Giang, and then a research specialist of the provincial Party Committee Office.

From August 2001 to January 2013, she worked as vice-president and then president of the An Giang Province Women's Union, deputy head of the Provincial Party Committee's Mass Mobilization Department, and secretary of the Party Committee of An Giang’s Tan Chau Town.

In February 2013, she was deputy chairwoman of the An Giang administration and then deputy secretary of the provincial Party Committee.

She became Party Committee secretary of An Giang in October 2015 before being voted as Vice-State President in April 2021.

Nguyen Xuan Phuc, while holding the post of the prime minister in the 2016-21 tenure, made great efforts in leading Vietnam’s COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control, gaining many important achievements.

However, he must take the political responsibility as the government chief when many high-ranking officials, including two deputy prime ministers and three ministers, committed violations and wrongdoings, causing serious consequences. 

Aware of his responsibility before the Party and the people, he handed in his resignation, which was accepted by the PCC.

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