VietNamNet Bridge – The Government is set to allow shares of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) to be sold at below book value in order to hasten their equitisation.

Coc Sau coal mine in the northern province of Quang Ninh. Shares in State-owned enterprises will be sold below their book value in order to hasten their equitisation.

Regulations to this effect will be issued this month, they said at a conference on restructuring SOEs.

It was also revealed at the conference that 432 State-owned enterprises (SOEs) will be equitised in the 2014-15 period.

The conference was chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Deputy PM Vu Van Ninh.

Pham Viet Muon, deputy head of the Government Committee for SOE reform, said that during the 2011-13 period, 99 SOEs were equitised, raising the total number of businesses of this kind to 4,065.

He said the committee estimates that by 2015, State-owned conglomerates and corporations will withdraw nearly VND22 trillion (roughly US$1 billion) from non-core businesses.

Muon said the number of SOEs equitised in 2011-13 was low, forcing a bigger workload for the next two years.

Experts at the conference said new regulations on the management and inspection of State groups and corporations were needed so that the latter's implementation of strategies and plans are better supervised.

SOEs should be required to apply modern business administration standards and accelerate the application of scientific and technological advances in order to cut costs and improve productivity, they said.

The committee said most of the equitised enterprises have seen stronger growth, helping the economy become more competitive.

The conference also affirmed the role of SOEs in the nation's socialist-orientated market economy.

State capital poured into the enterprises had climbed from VND700 trillion ($32.9 billion) in 2010 to VND810 trillion ($38.07 billion) in 2011 and VND1,019 trillion ($47.9 billion) in 2012.

Addressing the conference, Prime Minister Dung stressed that restructuring SOEs had been and would always be the key political task of the government.

He instructed ministries and localities to effectively carry out the equitisation of 432 SOEs during the 2014-15 period, while considering further reducing the number of enterprises funded entirely by state capital and more divestment in state capital dominant companies.

At the event, Dung hailed important contributions by SOEs to the country's development over the past few years, noting that SOEs have been a tool for the State to regulate the economy and maintain macroeconomic stability, adding that they have contributed to promoting growth.

SOEs have performed a leading role in building and developing the infrastructure, encouraging the research and application of science and assisting the transfer of advanced technology into production outlets and businesses, especially in the oil and gas, telecommunications, transport, and construction, as well as chemicals, sectors.

Source: VNS