Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh has ordered relevant ministries, sectors and localities take drastic measures to ensure state-owned enterprise (SOEs) reform in 2015.

He emphasized the need to clarify shortcomings of the privatisation process and determine solutions to the issues.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued guidelines for Government Decree 118/2014/ND-CP on increasing efficient operations of agricultural-forest companies and encouraging science-technology application and transference.

The Deputy Prime Minister also demanded the equitisation process and state capital divestment be intensified to complete the set restructuring plan with 44 companies privatised in the third quarter and an additional 127 businesses in the fourth quarter.

In the third quarter of this year, the Ministry of Finance is set to collaborate with ministries, the SBV, state-owned groups and businesses to set up a divestment plan for enterprises operating in real estate, securities, insurance and investment funds.

Some 143 SOEs were equitised in 2014, well below the set target of 200. As many as 432 SOEs were subjected to restructuring efforts in 2014 and 2015.

Vietnam divested approximately 5 trillion VND (over 238 million USD) of State capital from SOEs, gaining nearly 7 trillion VND (333.33 million USD) in total revenue, 45 percent of which came from the real estate sector.-VNA