MOLISA is collecting the public’s opinion for the draft decree on the salary mechanism for workers and managers of SOEs.

The ministry has set the monthly salary of VND60-70 million for chair of board of management, VND50-60 million for members of board of management and head of supervisory board and VND40-50 million for members of the supervisory board.

In addition to the basic salaries, they will also get additional money based on the enterprises’ profits.

In the immediate time, the implementation of the wage mechanism on a trial basis will be made in three SOEs – VNPT holding company, Vietnam Airlines holding company and the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM).

Analysts believe that MOLISA chosethe three corporations for the trial because they are profitable enterprises.

They are all big enterprises which have transparent financial accounting and strictly observe the state’s policies.

In fact, the State’s Audit, when examining the enterprises, discovered some problems, but the problems were not serious.

Explaining the suggested salary of VND60-70 million for chair of management board, MOLISA said the salary is very high compared with the income of lower level workers, but it is not high compared with the pay to chairs of private companies and foreign invested enterprises.

Dinh Trong Thinh, a respected economist, agreed that the pay to the managers of private corporations is higher than VND70 million.

“I know some private corporations which are willing to pay VND300-400 million to CEO, but it is difficult to find candidates,” he said.

“When CEOs receive high pay, they have to take high responsibility for enterprises’ profits,” he explained.

Thinh went on to say that a good pay mechanism must not be one which divides money equally among workers. “One must accept the fact that the pay to managers is tens times higher than the pay to normal workers,” he said.

Thinh offered the explanation after people argued that the pay to managers of SOEs is high, which is unfair for workers who can receive VND5-7 million a month only.

Meanwhile, according to a director of a private company in Hanoi, people have every reason to argue that the pay to SOEs’ CEOs is too high.

“They spend the state’s money and they don’t bear the same pressure as the directors of private companies,” he said, adding that he would accept lower pay if he was the CEO of an SOE.

Ha Dung

Should SOEs make outward investments?

Experts warn that if state-owned enterprises (SOEs) make outward investments, the state would lose capital.

Experts doubt SOEs’ can succeed with investment projects abroad

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been advised to remain cautious when making outward investments because the possibility of success is low.