Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung yesterday praised the Ministry of Public Security for strictly following the orders of the government in launching an investigation into illegal activities aimed at hostile takeovers in the banking sector, causing instability.

The Vietnamese Prime Minister also called for punishment to the culprits “no matter who they are”.

He was talking at the 18th session of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption in Hanoi on August 22.

According the chinhphu.vn, the official website of the government of Vietnam, PM Dung “instructed the Ministry of Public Security to speedily carry out investigations to clarify and punish according to law all those, no matter who they are, that acted illegally, to ensure openness, transparency, security and safety of the banking system in the country”.

The Prime Minister also ordered the speedup of the investigation and manhunt for former official Duong Chi Dung who is now hiding from police. Duong Chi Dung was head of Vietnam Maritime Administration, and has been wanted since May 17 for economic offenses committed during the time he was chairman of the infamous state giant Vinalines.

Prime Minister Dung also called for more awareness on corruption, and perfection of policies on land use and management, and the state-owned enterprises management.

PM Dung told the meeting that the prevention and the fight against corruption saw positive results during the past 7 months.

PM Dung pointed out that some agencies fail to pay proper attention to the fight against corruption, and that some corruption cases were delayed, causing public concern.

PM Dung also asked relevant agencies to improve investigation, inspection, audit, prosecution and trial, as well as speed up the settlement of corruption cases, especially serious and complex ones.

According to VNA, in the first six months of this year, the inspection sector conducted 6,056 administrative inspections, proposed the collection of VND6.482 trillion to the State budget, 1,291 hectares of land and issued VND258 billion in fines for administrative violations.