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
