(VOVworld) – It has become an urgent task for Vietnam to boost the equitization process of state-owned enterprises (SOE), especially when Vietnam has, in recent years, participated in establishing ASEAN Economic Community and in negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. It is also the government’s determination to restructure the economy toward more effective and sustainable development.

In 2014, a series of major SOEs have begun to conduct initial public offerings (IPO). Many of them have been listed on the securities market after failing a couple of times. In the first half of this year, 38 of 58 SOEs were equitized. In a conference on the implementation of restructuring SOEs held earlier this year, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked ministries, sectors, provincial authorities, and SOEs to join efforts to create breakthroughs to fulfill the project on the issue. Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung said: “we should successfully equitize 432 state-owned enterprises as set out in the adopted project. This must be considered a major political task for the government.”

Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) engineers maintain oil pipelines. The company is to withdraw capital from several areas, including banking and property. (Photo Petrovietnam)

To accelerate the process, the government has directed ministries and sectors to carry out a series of breakthrough solutions. They include forgiving debts for 4 groups of SOEs, allowing SOEs to withdraw the state’s capital from non-core businesses by selling stakes at the prices below the face or the book values, and reducing the number of shares held by the government in equitized companies. The Prime Minister has directed the assignment of specific responsibilities for ministers, chairmen of people’s committees of provinces and cities, and presidents of economic groups. 

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The Ministry of Transport is one of leading agencies in SOE restructuring process. Over the past 3 years, it has speeded up equitization for the companies in which the state doesn’t need to hold all charter capital and focused on completing equitization procedures for rail transport businesses. Minister Dinh La Thang said:  “Based on achievements in the equitization and reorganization process of enterprises over the past 3 years, we’ll take more drastic measures to implement the Prime Minister’s direction and determinedly fulfill the equitization of the remaining companies this year and next year.”

In the first quarter of this year, the equitization pace has much improved in 16 state-owned groups, corporations, and enterprises whose equitizing schemes have been approved by the Prime Minister.