At the workshop (Source: bnews.vn)They told an internationalconference that this was particularly true in the context of the Governmentstepping up the SOE restructuring process.
The conference, organised inHanoi by the Finance Ministries of Vietnam and China, discussed the problemsand difficulties faced by financial supervisory agencies and sharedinternational experiences on improving supervision mechanisms.
Vietnamese Deputy Minister ofFinance, Nguyen Huu Chi, said that the financial supervision in SOEs in Vietnamis a complicated, difficult process because of the large number of SOEs withinvestments spread over various industries and different bodies representingState ownership in the enterprises.
As of early 2016, the Governmenthas capital in more than 1,000 enterprises with total assets of 3.1 quadrillionVND (136.6 billion USD). Of these, the State holds 100 percent of capital in781 enterprises.
Chi said the complications aswell as inefficient operations were among the main factors behind the wastageand loss of State-owned assets and investments.
In 2014, pretax return on equityof State economic corporations and groups was 16 percent, and that ofenterprises under the ministry and provincial-level People’s Committees was 10 percent.
Supervision of State capital inSOEs has improved in recent years with the Government issuing and updating anumber of policies to improve the supervisory mechanisms in a bid to limitrisks of State capital losses, the conference heard.
For State corporations andgroups, the rights and responsibilities of the representatives of Stateownership have been more clearly laid out.
Management and supervision arecarried out in tandem with performance evaluation of firms through variousactions including the audit of financial statements, evaluation andclassification of enterprises, regular inspections and monitoring of corporatefinance.
The Ministry of Finance, inco-ordination with other ministries and provincial authorities, has conductedannual reviews and assessments of financial status and performance of SOEs andreported to the Government.
The Ministry will also use itsassessments to give risk alerts and recommendations.
Besides, the ministry haspointed out inadequacies and shortcomings in the current supervisory regime,including loose enforcement of regulations, overlap and dispersion in Statemanagement levels and lack of transparency in disclosures by firms, Chi said.
Wen Zongyu, deputy director ofthe Research Institute for Fiscal Science of China’s Ministry of Finance, saidSOEs have been playing a key role in the country’s economic reforms and theywere expanding.
He said Chinese SOEs weresubject to public asset management, and had a tight relationship in the reformprocess, and the improvement of management mechanisms for State assets shouldbe monitored in parallel with the SOE restructuring process.
The management system needs tofocus on effective financial supervision, as well as timely issuance andenforcement of policies to promote innovation within the enterprises, accordingto Wen. – VNA
VNA
