VietNamNet Bridge – Ministry of Transport (MoT)’s Party Committee has approved, in principle, the dismissal of Tran Ngoc Thanh from the position of chairman of Viet Nam Railway (VNR), effective from tomorrow.

Tran Ngoc Thanh, former Chairman of Viet Nam Railway. — Photo baogiaothong.vn

The move followed Thanh’s offer to resign back in late October shortly after the MoT issued a plan to reassign him to the post of deputy head of the Disaster Prevention, Search and Rescue Commission, also under MoT.

At the time of submitting his resignation, Thanh, 56, still had four more years of service until he reached the retirement age of 60, according to the existing Labour Code.

Nguyen Ngoc Dong, deputy minister of MoT, will take charge of VNR’s Board of Directors from tomorrow, until a suitable candidate is appointed.

Prior to working at the corporation, Thanh had several years of experience working in the transport sector and served as head of the ministry’s transport department.

Serving from April 2013, Thanh was believed to have actively contributed to welcomed renovations of railway business operations by implementing the electronic train ticket system, improving the quality of infrastructure and some service trains, and restructuring transportation activities.

However, VNR’s businesses remained bleak under his helm, with 2015 revenue down to VND2.66 trillion (US$116 million) – just half of the 2014 revenues of VND 5.53 trillion, the VnEconomy reported. Post-tax profit of 2016 is expected to decline from 2015’s figure of VND93.7 billion ($4.1 million) to VND 69 billion ($3 million), a dip of 42.5 per cent.

His leadership was also tainted by lapses such as the widely-criticised decision to purchase used carriages from China earlier this year or estate investments found "inappropriate and outside of its designated functions" by the Government Inspectorate.

VNS