Moscow: Vietnam’s National Assembly elected Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc as the country’s new president on Monday, the government said in a statement.
A resolution on electing Phuc as state president was adopted with an approval rate of 97.5 percent (468 approval votes) at the 11th session of the National Assembly, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Monday.
Phuc was sworn in as Vietnam’s president later in the day.
According to the Vietnam News Agency, this is the first time that the country’s parliament elected an incumbent prime minister as president.
Phuc became Vietnam’s deputy prime minister in 2011 and prime minister in 2016.