The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a 630 million USD multitranche financing facility for Vietnam for further reforms of major State-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The financial assistance aims to make SOEs more efficient, profitable and transparent in a bid to spur economic growth and open up opportunities for the private sector, said the ADB in a press release available to Vietnam News Agency on Dec. 14.

The assistance titled Vietnam SOE Reform and Corporate Governance Facilitation Programme demonstrates ADB’s support to the Government’s reform agenda through financial and technical assistance.

ADB’s new programme will also provide training and other assistance to Governmental institutions engaged in the SOE reform process, such as the Debt and Asset Trading Corporation.

Under this financial umbrella, ADB will provide 6 million USD from its ordinary capital resources (OCR) to strengthen the balance sheets of selected corporations through debt restructuring. As much as 30 million USD from its Asian Development Fund (ADF) is used to support operational and corporate governance improvement and institutional strengthening.

ADB’s funds make up almost 36 percent of the estimated 1.77 billion USD cost of SOE reforms until 2015. The remainder is expected to come from the Government’s contributions and internal resources of participating corporations and strategic investors.

In the first stage, ADB will provide13 million USD to support the transformation of the Song Da group.

The Ministry of Finance has been assigned to execute the programme that runs from December 2009 to December 2015./.