Restructuring – key to removing economic obstacles in 2013
In 2013, the Vietnamese government
focused its economic restructuring master plan on improving institutions
and policies and reforming the growth model. Top-priority fields were
given to public investment, financial and credit organisations, and
state-owned enterprises.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has
implemented a government resolution on restructuring state-owned
corporations and economic groups. Following the roadmap, the ministry
has clearly defined functions and asked state owned corporations and
economic groups to withdraw their investment capital from areas outside
their core businesses.
According to Minister Vu Huy Hoang, “The
Ministry of Industry and Trade has implemented the government’s
directive to restructure enterprises and ensure the rights and
responsibility of the state owner in economic groups, corporations, and
companies under the Ministry’s management. In a number of areas, studies
are continuing before new restructuring policies are promulgated to
ensure the efficiency of SOEs.”
The efforts have initially improved
the efficiency of state-owned enterprises. To date, about 80 percent of
SOEs have made profits accounting for 33 percent of GDP.
Regarding
investment restructuring, especially public investment, the government
has directed the adjustment and allocation of investment capital for key
projects and counterpart capital for ODA-funded projects. Control has
been tightened for newly-launched projects while scattered investment
has gradually been eliminated. A mechanism of investment management
decentralization is being improved to increase responsibility of
provincial authorities and investors while private investment is
enhanced. So far, the level of non-state investment increased to 62.6
percent in the 2011-2013 period from 61.3 percent of 5 years ago.
Initial results have been recorded in implementing comprehensive
measures to restructure credit institutions. Weak banks have been
restructured. Bad debts have gradually been controlled.
A plan to
restructure the agricultural sector towards greater added value and
sustainable development has been implemented. It has focused on
transforming crop and animal structures, promoting the application of
technology, building large-scale industrial crop zones and high-tech
agricultural zones, linking production with processing, preservation and
distribution, and integrating into the global production network and
value chain.
The government’s implementation of plans to
restructure the entire economy has remarkably improved the economy at
both macro and micro levels. But generally, Vietnam’s socio-economic
development is still facing many challenges. At the recent Vietnam
Development Partnership Forum in Hanoi, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung
reiterated the government’s determination to intensify economic
restructuring, creating an impetus for Vietnam’s sustainable development
in the future.
According to Prime Minister Dung , Vietnamese
government will continue economic restructuring and revising the growth
model so that the national economy can enjoy higher competitiveness and
develop sustainably. The Prime Minister also set target to stabilise the
macro-economy, control inflation, maintain the GDP growth of 5.8
percent in 2014 and 6 percent in the following year, and continue to
stabilise the exchange rate and maintain export growth.
Under its
World Trade Organisation commitment and a similar future commitment
under the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, Vietnam will equitise 500
state-owned enterprises.-VNA