Leaders of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) which are slow in withdrawing their investments from non-core business activities might easily be dismissed.
State-owned corporations and groups have been requested to withdraw their non-core investments before 2015
This is one among many proposals the Ministry of Finance will submit to the prime minister in August, in order to speed up non-core investment withdrawal, said Dang Quyet Tien, the Ministry of Finance’s Deputy Head of the Enterprise Finance Department.
According to Mr. Tien, many SOEs said that they do not want to sell their stake at this time when prices of shares and real estate are very low, which would cause them big losses. This has slowed down the removal of non-core capital.
He noted that, “We need such strong measures to force SOEs’ leaders to quicken non-core capital removal.”
In a recent meeting with reporters, in early February this year, Deputy Minister of Finance Truong Chi Trung said SOEs currently account for 70% of the country’s total development investment, 50% of stated-funded capital, 60% of banking loans and more than 50% of bad debts. Therefore, restructuring SOEs is an essential task.
The World Bank has warned that sluggish restructuring of banks and SOEs would adversely affect investor confidence in the Vietnamese business environment, as well as economic growth prospects.
Matt Hildebrandt, an economist at JPMorgan Chase in Singapore, said it would take Vietnam many years, even dozens of years to complete its restructuring programme.
On July 29, the prime minister urged ministries, agencies and localities as well as SOEs, to reduce and remove ineffective projects to deal with massive, but inefficient, state-funded investments. They’ve also been encouraged to revise regulations on recruitment of labourers and appointment of officials. The recruitment and appointments must be transparent and in line with existing laws.
According to the prime minister’s instructions, officials who cause problems for for their agencies must be dismissed.
State-owned corporations and groups have been requested to withdraw their non-core investments before 2015. This is considered an important step towards the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, particularly those that have invested in riskier sectors such real estate, banking, finance and insurance.
Đăng ký: VietNam News
