Vietnam should take more drastic measures to overhaul and restructure of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), Deputy Director of the Central Research Institute for Economic Management, Nguyen Dinh Cung said.
Although some Vietnam’s industries has been dominated by the SOEs, including telecommunications and air transport, the state sector failed to play its major role as expected, Cung added.
The state sector accounts for one-third of total social investment and almost all of the national resources and minerals, but its contribution makes up only between 25% and 27% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), he noted.
Number of SOEs has been reduced to 1,500 from 12,000 over the past 20 years, but efficiency is questionable. The growth rate of SOEs is always lower than other economic sectors and even lower than the national average, the official emphasized.
To solve the problem, Vietnam needs to apply all principles and mechanisms of the market economy to the SOEs and speed up completion of a framework for corporate governance under international standards and norms.
“We have to do away with any style of loan and credit appointed and ordered by the state”, Cung suggested. All SOEs’ production costs must be calculated properly with the market price.
The government should not issue any decision to delay or write off or pay debts for any business. All priorities and privileges towards SOEs, especially their business rights and access to natural resources, land and market information, must be eliminated.
State enterprises must be clearly defined as a mean to carry out the country’s industrialization and economic restructuring in order to improve its development and offer added value to the country’s economy.
Besides, the state should assign enterprises with specific targets including annual export turnover, scale and level of development in certain period of time, regional and international market share and competitiveness. (VNS)
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