Workers of Vietnam Electricity check the transmission system (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) — Innovation has become a pressing need for State-ownedenterprises (SOEs) which have undergone drastic restructuring during the pastdecade but their operation efficiency remained lower than expected, accordingto experts
The Government recently issuedResolution No 161/NQ-CP to strengthen innovation and increase theoperational efficiency of SOEs.
The resolution stressed SOEsmust take the lead in innovation and technology development, adding that eachSOE must be an innovation centre.
Focus must be placed ondeveloping a corporate ecosystem and building value chains. SOEs must bepioneers in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and be more proactive ininternational integration and extending global reach.
Co-operation among SOEs andother domestic companies must also be enhanced to improve links and establishdomestic supply chains to reduce the dependence of foreign markets.
SOEs are also urged to prepareto take opportunities arising from free trade agreements so as to expandmarkets and consolidate Vietnamese brands in the world.
They must play their roles incontributing to socio-economic development in difficult areas which were notattractive to private investment as well as in restructuring the economy,maintaining macro stability and ensuring security, including energy security,food security and environment protection.
The State must hold controllingstakes at State-owned commercial joint-stock banks.
For the power, food, telecommunications,national defence and security companies, and other social welfare companies,the State must hold the entire stakes.
SOEs must have strategies topromote the development of 5G technology, e-Government and smart cities.
The privatisation of SOEs mustbe associated with the innovation at SOEs.
The accountability of themanagers of SOEs in privatisation, capital divestment and restructuring must beenhanced to ensure transparency and compliance with established regulations andthe market principles as well as to prevent interest groups.
According to a recentGovernment report to the National Assembly, there were 818 SOEs as of theend of 2019 fiscal year, including 491 entirely State-owned firms and 327partially owned by the State.
The State capital at 818 SOEswas estimated to exceed 1.6 quadrillion VND (68.9 billion USD), up 4 percentagainst 2019.
Forty-four out of the 491entirely State-owned firms reported losses worth 619 billion VNDaltogether./.
