Vietnam PM to chat online with citizens

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Hanoi: Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung plans to hold online chats with Vietnamese Internet users early next year, an official said Tuesday.

Dung, who has vowed to cut corruption and increase public accountability in the one-party communist state, is to join other state ministers in the live chats on the official Communist Party website, said Dao Duy Quat, the site's editor.

"This is part of a move to enhance communication between leaders and the people," Quat said.

Dung would likely answer questions online in January while Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan and Education Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan would begin their chats in December, Quat said.

Vietnam bans opposition parties, and outspoken critics of the Communist Party are frequently jailed and harassed.

However, recent small demonstrations over alleged land grabbing by officials and a public outcry over a series of high-profile corruption scandals have prompted the government to seek ways to head off any mass discontent.

Vietnam now has an estimated 14 million internet users, more than quadruple the number three years ago, according to the posts and telecommunications ministry.

About one-sixth of the population of 84 million now regularly accesses the Internet.

Dung, who was chosen as premier by the Communist Party in April and confirmed by an elected parliament in June, has vowed to tackle corruption.

Speaking at the National Assembly on Monday, Dung said that all government officials must "drastically" fight graft.

"Each official, each party unit and each agency must act decisively, be determined and serious in the fight against corruption," he said, adding that ministers and other officials would be sacked if they failed to prevent or detect graft cases.

A government inspection that Dung ordered shortly after taking office revealed that nearly one-quarter of government ministries had reported 1,700 corruption cases, causing a loss in revenue of at least $100 million.