Portraits of two Deputy Prime Minister candidates While Mr. Pham Binh Minh inherits diplomatic experience from his father, veteran Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach, Mr. Vu Duc Dam had a long time as an assistant to late Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet.    Mr. Vu Duc Dam (left) and Mr. Pham Binh Minh. Born in 1959, Minh is a Nam Dinh native, holds a Master of Law and Master of Diplomacy degree at the Fletcher Tuft University, USA. He is a member of the 10th, 11th Central Party Committee and a deputy of the 13th National Assembly. Born into a family whose father is a famous diplomat (Mr. Nguyen Co Thach, birth name Pham Van Cuong, was the former Foreign Minister and Vice Chair of the Council of Ministers), Minh succeeded his father by studying at the Hanoi University of International Relations (now the Institute of International Relations). Graduating in 1981, he worked at the Training Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and experienced various positions in the Ministry before being appointed as Foreign Minister in 2011. Minh experienced various positions such the as attaché of the Embassy of Vietnam in the United Kingdom, Ambassador and Deputy Chief of the Vietnam's permanent mission to the UN, Envoy and Deputy Ambassador of the Vietnam Embassy in the United States. He used to be an assistant to Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem when Khiem was concurrently the Minister for Foreign Affairs. In an interview with Tuoi Tre Newspaper in 2006 when he was elected as an alternate member of the 10th Central Party Committee, Minh shared about his father's impact on his diplomatic career: "My father said that he was very passionate to diplomacy and longed for a son who succeeded him. I am truly grateful for my father because he turned me into a meaningful work." Talking about the way of career advancement, Minh said: "My father retired from the diplomatic service in 1991 and passed away eight years ago (2006). But the results I have achieved today came from what I learned from my father. He was both my father and my mentor and he made a great influence on my working style." Talking about his work on the position of a diplomat, Minh said that "the role of diplomats in peacetime is as important as the role of soldiers in wartime." Mr. Vu Duc Dam, born 1963 in Hai Duong, studied in Belgium for six years, since 1982. He has a doctorate in economics, fluent in French, English and is the youngest minister at the time of the appointment in 2011. Dam experienced many positions, starting with the staff position of the Technical Services and Import Export Company in 1988. Five years later, he became the Deputy Director of the Science - Technology and International Cooperation Departments of the General Post Office when he was only 30 years old. He then worked at the government offices and became Director and Secretary of Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet in 1996. When Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet no longer held positions in the government and was appointed as Advisor to the Central Party Committee, Dam continued as an assistant to Kiet until 2003. Since 2003, he held many positions, such as a member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chair of Bac Ninh Province. He served as Deputy Minister of Post and Telecommunications for about two years (2005-2007) before being appointed as Vice Chair, Chair and Party Secretary of Quang Ninh Province in 2010. Dam was elected an alternate member of the Party Central Committee in 2007, when he was 44 years old. Four years later, he was elected to the Party Central Committee and was approved as the Head of the Office of Government (equivalent to Minister position). Playing the role of the "government spokesman" and presiding over the Government's regular press conferences in the last two years, Dam has been a familiar face to the media. He also initiated the program “The people ask, Ministers answer” on the government website, wishing to build another bridge between people with the heads of ministries and sectors. Tran Cham, VietNamNet Bridge