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Viet Nam will accelerate its programme of equitisation of State-owned enterprises (SoEs) in a bid to finish the process by 2009, said Finance Minister Vu Van Ninh.
According to him, SoEs' shares will be sold mostly to domestic and foreign strategic investors, who are the most important factor in business efficiency, particularly in big businesses.
In an interview with Thoi bal Tai Chinh ( the Financial Times) on Jan. 8, Minister Ninh said his ministry has completed the amendment of Decree No. 187 on SoE equitisation and has submitted it to the Government. The amended decree will give important and bolder solutions to create incentives for the equitisation process.
According to the Government's report, as many as 2,935 SoEs have been equitised since the pilot equitisation projects started in 1992. The equitisation process has been expanded to larger-scale SoEs, including those in important industries such as power, telecom, maritime, oil and gas, finance and insurance.
The equitisation process has been generating enterprises of multi-owner form, reducing the number of small-scale and unprofitable enterprises, and streamlining the labour force while maintaining social stability.
A recent survey conducted by the Steering Board for SoEs renewal and development showed the efficient operation of 850 enterprises after one year of equitisation. On average, their charter capital increased by 44 percent, revenues - 23.6 percent, profit - 139.76 percent and remittance to the State budget - 24.9 percent. The incomes of their workers were raised by 12 percent despite the number of workers having increased 6.6 percent on averagel. The average dividends reached 17.11 percent with 71.4 percent of enterprises having their dividends higher than bank interests.
However, experts said the process is still moving at a slow pace, particularly in the financial and banking fields. They attributed the situation to the irrationality in the mechanism which brought about the high proportion of the State's holdings in many SoEs and the limitation of capital flows from outside.
Another reason was that the management manners in enterprises in which the State's holdings dominated have not actually been changed.
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