Vietnam's southern HCM City speeds up SOEs restructuring

Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City, Vietnam's southern economic hub, targeted to equitize 31 State- owned enterprises (SOEs) and dissolve, sell and re-arrange 21 others during 2014-2015 period in its effort to speed up SOEs restructuring, local Saigon Times weekly reported Thursday. Specifically, 14 SOEs operating in the sectors of property, shipbuilding, water supply, forestry, labor export and tourism will be floated in 2014, while the remaining 17 SOEs will be equitized in 2015, said the report quoting sources from HCM City' s People Committee. The SOE equitization process in HCM City is said to move slowly. In 2013, the city failed to achieve the target of floating nine SOEs due to late transfer of assets and issues regarding labor, wages and changes in top positions at some enterprises. There are 108 SOEs in HCM City, of which 15 are conducting procedures for merger, disbandment, bankruptcy and transfer. Meanwhile, 93 operating SOEs posted total revenue of around 74.58 trillion VND (3.53 billion U.S dollars) in the Jan.-Nov. 2013 period, down 30.96 percent year-on-year. On the national scope, the Vietnamese government has committed to undertaking economic restructuring in 2014, focusing on public investment, credit organizations, financial market, SOEs, agriculture and rural areas, industry and services, e-portal of Vietnamese government reported. Regarding SOEs restructuring, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Steering Committee for Enterprise Reform and Development are assigned to assume the prime responsibilities for realizing the project on SOEs restructuring.