It is necessary to clearly identify priority sectors and fields for investment by state-owned enterprises in the coming period.

On September 26 in Hanoi , Investment Newspaper coordinated with the State Capital Management Committee at Enterprises to organize a seminar on "State Capital Management at Enterprises: Looking Back and Looking Forward". The seminar was held on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the establishment of the State Capital Management Committee.

Speaking at the seminar, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Do Thanh Trung assessed that in order to achieve outstanding achievements in nearly 40 years of renovation, the Vietnamese business community in general and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in particular have made continuous efforts, overcome many difficulties and challenges, and continue to affirm their leading role in leading the economy. Although SOEs only account for a small proportion of the economy, they hold many important resources for the country's socio-economic development, playing a core and important role in building and defending the Fatherland in the new situation.

The strong development of SOEs not only contributes to socio-economic development but is also an effective tool in implementing macro-regulation, price stability, social security, ensuring national security and sovereignty , especially in difficult areas, borders and islands. SOEs are also the area for building and developing important economic infrastructure and key industries and fields to create momentum for economic development, in conditions where the private sector is not yet strong and incapable of doing so.

However, Deputy Minister Do Thanh Trung also frankly acknowledged that the production and business activities of SOEs, especially investment activities in recent times, still have some shortcomings and limitations.

Specifically, SOEs are slow to change in the new era and context; their role in leading, motivating, paving the way, and promoting other economic sectors has not been clearly promoted.

Besides, SOEs have good operational efficiency but not commensurate with the resources they hold, especially the total assets of more than 3.7 million billion VND of the country.

Notably, investment activities have not been as expected. Investment in improving innovation capacity is still limited, especially in industries that have the potential to lead economic restructuring such as core technologies, digital technologies; new energy, clean energy; industries containing high scientific, technological and innovation values...

In particular, the competitiveness of SOEs in general and international competitiveness in particular is still limited. SOEs only dominate the domestic market but have little ability to compete and reach out to the international market.

According to data from the State Capital Management Committee at Enterprises, by 2022, the total consolidated equity of 19 Groups and Corporations will reach VND 1,154 trillion; total consolidated assets will reach VND 2,491 trillion, accounting for about 63% of total equity and 65% of total assets of state-owned enterprises nationwide.

Up to now, after 5 years, 19 State "giants" have made significant changes when transferring to the "super committee". Compared to 2018 (the time of transfer to the Committee), according to the financial reports of the Corporations and General Companies by the end of 2022, the total consolidated equity increased from VND 1,055,618 billion to VND 1,154,600 billion; total consolidated assets increased from VND 2,359,693 billion to VND 2,490,832 billion; the annual production and business targets achieved have increased.

The State Capital Management Committee at Enterprises has also frankly pointed out a number of shortcomings and limitations such as the fact that the Corporations and General Companies have not yet fully utilized the capital and assets assigned by the State in accelerating the progress of investment projects, controlling quality through selecting and controlling contractors, and handling arising issues during the implementation process, especially large and important projects.

In addition, the allocation of investment capital has not been focused on leading and motivating industries and sectors. There are no products or services in high-tech and core technology sectors that have spillover effects or the ability to lead the transformation of the economic structure of each enterprise.

At the discussion, Mr. Ho Sy Hung - Vice Chairman of the State Capital Management Committee at Enterprises - pointed out 3 main reasons for the above limitations. Firstly, the rights and responsibilities of representing the state ownership of 19 groups and corporations were transferred from 5 ministries to the Committee at the same time, so the workload was large. The scope and nature of the work was wide and complicated, related to 16 economic and technical sectors.

Second, resources are still lacking and limited in both quantity and qualifications and capacity of staff. The Committee must both improve its organization and immediately and fully implement, in accordance with the law, the functions and tasks of the agency representing state ownership.

Third, the system of perfecting the model of the Committee separating the function of representing the owner and the function of state management for the same enterprise has not been institutionalized by legal documents.

To meet the country's development requirements in the coming period and continue to implement the Prime Minister's instructions at the recent Government Standing Committee meeting with state-owned enterprises, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Do Trung Thanh said that it is necessary to focus on solving a number of basic issues.

Accordingly, it is necessary to identify and re-evaluate the position and role of SOEs, thereby clarifying the goals of arranging and reforming the SOE sector in accordance with the actual situation in Vietnam. It is necessary to determine where SOEs are in the Vietnamese enterprise system, thereby setting important missions for SOEs and allocating resources for SOEs to perform well in this role and position in the economy.

At the same time, it is necessary to discuss and propose directions for innovating the management method of state capital of enterprises in the direction of continuing to promote the assignment and decentralization of the implementation of rights and responsibilities of the owner's representative agency in the new context, especially solutions to enhance the role of the State Capital Management Committee in enterprises.

With the management of 19 large economic groups and state-owned corporations, holding 1.1 million billion VND out of the total 3.7 million billion VND in assets of the entire state-owned enterprise sector, the Committee needs to play the role of a conductor in coordinating and mobilizing resources of 19 enterprises to serve the socio-economic development process," the Deputy Minister emphasized.

In particular, it is necessary to more clearly assess the investment implementation situation and investment efficiency of SOEs in the past time in order to identify the obstacles and difficulties that need to be resolved, and from there advise the Government and the Prime Minister on policies to unlock resources, create breakthroughs, and promote the role of SOEs with the motto "soonest - most effective" and "harmonized benefits, shared risks".

In addition, clearly identify priority sectors and fields for investment by SOEs in the coming period and develop large-scale SOEs to play a pioneering and leading role in the new context with the motto "Taking internal strength as fundamental, strategic, long-term, decisive, external strength as important and breakthrough".

The Deputy Minister also emphasized that SOEs need to do big, difficult, new things to create momentum for economic development, leaving room for private enterprises to develop in other fields. Fields such as offshore wind power, green hydrogen or semiconductor industry... are fields that require the participation of SOEs, especially large-scale SOEs...

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