Vietnam doesn't have a good track record on public infrastructure projects. Due to corruption and cronyism they have a hard time even building roads to spec. The prospect of running a nuclear reactor in that environment is horrifying.

I'm a Vietnamese and your 2 words "corruption" and "cronyism" are 100% correct for Viet Nam.

People are terrified of high visibility catastrophic risk (ie nuclear meltdown) in a way that they cannot get concerned about fossil fuel pollution. It may cause millions of deaths, but they'll mostly go unattributed and certainly not sensationally reported

.. assuming the nuclear plant got built on time and on budget.

Exactly, considering the nuclear power plants where a vague promise from 2007 to have a nuclear power plant at all. A promise that has now been revoked.

Now let's see if solar can meet it's promises.

Well it all really depends on how government in Vietnam take actions to that, as far as I know, Vietnam is also one of the most corrupted Government in SEA. I think that supports your case.

I would be surprised if they changed their mind, 3% in 12 years is already not much so that's definitely achievable.