A production line of national dairy firm Vinamilk. The State Capital Investment Corporation sold stakes of Vinamilk last year. (Photo: brandsvietnam) Hanoi (VNA) - The transfer of State enterprise ownership to theState Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) has been disappointing, Nguyen DinhCung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said ata conference in Hanoi on February 21.
According to Cung, shifting enterprise ownershipfrom ministries and provincial People’s Committees to the SCIC is an importantsolution to restructuring State-owned enterprises (SOEs), but the changerequires more drastic measures to hasten the process.
By his analysis, ministries and localauthorities lacked dynamism and even purposefully delayed the transfer, whilethe SCIC has been hesitant to take on struggling enterprises.
A CIEM report shows that 173 out of 234 SOEsthat have required State ownership representative transfer to the SCIC from2013 have failed to do so. Those include 32 enterprises under five ministriesand 141 under 27 cities and provinces.
The State capital in these 173 enterprises isestimated to total 82.6 trillion VND (3.6 billion USD).
A representative from SCIC said that as ofDecember 2016, SCIC received the State ownership representatives from over1,000 enterprises with a total book value of 9.9 trillion VND (estimated at 15trillion VND at market value), accounting for just 1 percent of Stateenterprise capital.
The result was disappointing. The Governmentpreviously asked ministries and provincial authorities to hasten the transferand complete the process by the first quarter of this year.
SCIC also said that over 80 percent of the enterprises that have received theState ownership representative were of small sizes and inefficient operation.
“The transfer of State capitals to SCIC isstagnant despite the Prime Minister’s push,” Nguyen Hong Hien, Deputy GeneralDirector of SCIC said at the conference.
In addition, several SOEs sold part of State capital to subsidiaries beforetransferring to the SCIC, which was not compliant with the Prime Minister’sdirective, Hien said.
Phan Duc Hieu, Deputy Director of CIEM, saidthat many localities and ministries want to keep the right to manage SOEcapital, arguing that their enterprise is necessary for the local development.Hieu added that some just want to hand over weak enterprises to SCIC.
“The stagnation in transferring State ownership representative to SCIC reflectsproblems in reform,” Cung said, adding that special interest groups might beone element delaying the progress.
He said that many enterprises still want to be under ministries to easily askfor “special mechanisms”.
Economic expert Luu Bich Ho said thatpunishments for the delay and stagnation remain too light, adding thataccountability must be clarified.
Experts at the conference also stressed theimportance of establishing a special committee, which will act as arepresentative of the State capital at enterprises.
The Prime Minister previously asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment tosubmit the project by the end of February.
According to the SCIC, most enterprises that it received were structured withan average return on equity ratio of 15-17 percent.-VNA
VNA
