Reuters ahead of the curve on Vietnam’s party congress.

Reuters was a day ahead of the competition in reporting on Jan 18 that Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, would be re-appointed to the elite Politburo, a step that all but assured him a second five-year term. The source-based story during the five-yearly Communist Party Congress was matched by Bloomberg, Dow Jones and the AP the next day. Reuters also reported exclusively the appointment of deputy central bank governor Nguyen Van Binh to the party’s policymaking Central Committee, indicating he was set to take over as State Bank of Vietnam governor. That followed several Reuters reports that provided unrivalled insight into changes at work in one of the world’s fastest-growing but most troubled frontier economies. This included a 4,500-word Special Report into Vietnam’s new consumer generation - an in-depth piece that looked at how a new era of entrepreneurs, many influenced by success stories in China, are leading a growing middle class. The report prompted the U.S. Department of Commerce to ask Reuters what the United States can do to help entrepreneurs build the U.S.-Vietnam trade relationship