Equitisation sees sluggish progress

By the end of September Vietnam had equitised 94 out of 289 State-owned companies, meaning it needed to put 195 more firms up for initial public offerings by the end of the year to meet its goal.
Equitisation sees sluggish progress ảnh 1Transport Hospital is the first medical facility to be equitised in Viet Nam. (Photo: vir.com)

By the end of September Vietnam had equitised 94 out of 289 State-owned companies, meaning it needed to put 195 more firms up for initial public offerings by the end of the year to meet its goal.

Equitisation has been slow because investors desire more transparency in the process, Dang Quyet Tien, deputy director of the Corporate Finance Agency under the Finance Ministry, told reporters on October 9.

Business leaders also anticipated losing power and finding new shortcomings during the process, he said.

According to the representative from the Ministry of Finance, only 4.5 trillion VND (200 million USD) was divested so far this year. Nearly 18 trillion VND (800 million USD) still needed to be divested by the year’s end, including 10 trillion VND (445 million USD) in banking and 6 trillion VND (267 million USD) in real estate.

In a bid to speed up the work, Tien proposed publishing a list detailing how much progress had been made by each firm that still needed to be equitised. Stronger monitoring and inspections were also necessary, he said.

The results of the restructuring also needed to be included in criteria used to judge the work of the companies’ director boards.-VNA

VNA

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