Minh defines the position and leading role of the state-owned economy.

In 2025, Viettel will successfully test and begin mass production of several types of high-tech strategic weapons for the first time. Photo | THANH DAT

That is the core objective in Resolution No. 79-NQ/TW of the Politburo , issued on January 6th.

Core force, important position

Throughout more than 80 years of national construction and development, the state-owned economic sector – a leading force – has effectively performed its functions of guiding, directing, and regulating economic activities, contributing to promoting growth, stabilizing the macroeconomy, maintaining major economic balances, ensuring national defense and security, promoting social progress and equity, improving people's lives, and enhancing Vietnam's position in the international arena. Among the three basic groups of the state-owned economic sector, the group of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), formed on the basis of state investment, including investment by SOEs themselves, are both business entities and core economic forces, participating in economic activities as a tool of the state in achieving economic, political, and social goals.

In fact, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have long been the driving force, creating momentum for the development of other economic sectors. Reporting at the meeting between the Prime Minister and the Chairmen and General Directors of several state-owned corporations and companies (SOEs) held at the end of 2025, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Tam stated that, as of 2024, the total assets of 671 SOEs were estimated at over 5.6 trillion VND, total revenue at nearly 3.3 trillion VND, contributing more than 29% to the country's GDP.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Tam, many economic groups and state-owned enterprises such as Viettel, VNPT, and MobiFone are typical examples of directly participating in serving national defense and security, implementing social welfare policies, combining economic development with ensuring national defense and security and protecting national sovereignty.

In particular, over the past year, Viettel has mass-produced and supplied the Ministry of National Defense with many key weapons, successfully tested a new high-tech, long-range strategic weapon for the first time, exceeding the research schedule, and has become a core research and production hub for dual-use industrial products, mastering core technologies...

Resolution No. 79-NQ/TW clearly outlines important directions for large state-owned enterprises like Vietnam Airlines to leverage their potential and fulfill their role as a "pillar" of the economy. (Photo: Ngo Tran Hai An)

There are still limitations and wasted resources.

Besides the achievements, Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Tam also frankly pointed out that the contributions of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have not yet met expectations, and have not clearly demonstrated their role in leading, creating momentum, paving the way, guiding, and promoting the development of other sectors, linking value chains… due to some existing shortcomings and limitations, such as fragmentation, overlap, and duplication, leading to scattered state investment, unhealthy competition among SOEs, and even waste of resources.

The inevitable consequence is that the operational efficiency of many enterprises remains low. A clear example is that in 2023, there were 134 state-owned enterprises with accumulated losses estimated at approximately VND 115,270 billion, of which 72 enterprises incurred losses exceeding VND 33,700 billion. For instance, EVN Group recorded a loss of VND 26,700 billion in the 2023 fiscal year. The main reason is that the group had to utilize high-cost power sources, leading to increased production costs, while retail electricity prices were insufficient to offset these losses.

On the other hand, from the perspective of a legislator with many years of experience in building the legal system regarding the economy, Deputy Chair of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee, Pham Thuy Chinh, noted that in reality, there is a lack of strategic development orientations for the state-owned enterprise sector towards sustainability. This would allow them to fully utilize their potential and fulfill their role as important regulatory tools for the State to guide and intervene in the economy when necessary, protecting the country and its people from market fluctuations and natural disasters in the context of increasingly complex global changes, while simultaneously ensuring the independence and self-reliance of the Vietnamese economy and national security.

Therefore, the position and role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) need to be further affirmed and guided by the Party's policies and guidelines on the development of the state economy, as well as the restructuring, reform, and development of SOEs, especially in the context of the country entering a new era.

Comprehensive scope, integrated solutions, and development-oriented approaches.

After nearly 40 years of reform, the State Audit Office has always been a "barometer" of the economy, a force maintaining macroeconomic stability during the most difficult times. However, in the context of increasingly fierce strategic competition, rapid digital transformation, and continuous restructuring of global supply chains, merely acting as a "shield" is insufficient. A higher requirement is needed: to become a driving force breaking through the old limitations of growth.

On January 6, 2026, General Secretary To Lam signed Resolution No. 79-NQ/TW on the development of the state-owned economy, which identifies the state-owned economy as a particularly important component of the socialist-oriented market economy, ensuring macroeconomic stability, major economic balances, strategic development orientation, and maintaining national defense and security.

Compared to previous documents, Dr. Nguyen Minh Thao, from the Institute of Economic and Financial Strategy and Policy (Ministry of Finance), believes that with its comprehensive scope, synchronized solutions, and decisive implementation orientation aimed at enabling this sector to truly play a leading role in the economy, Resolution No. 79-NQ/TW represents a significant step forward in thinking and approach to this important economic sector. It represents a more comprehensive and unified approach to the concept of the State-owned economy, clearly defining its scope and content, and creating consistency in understanding and implementation.

Furthermore, according to Dr. Nguyen Minh Thao, Resolution No. 79-NQ/TW clearly affirms the guiding principle of separating the use of state resources in providing public goods and services and fulfilling political tasks from business activities. Clear accounting between these two tasks will create a basis for improving the operational efficiency of state-owned enterprises. In the future, these contents will continue to be institutionalized in the legal system and concretized through action programs of the National Assembly and the Government.

Accordingly, clearly separating the functions of ownership and corporate governance is not just a technical adjustment, but a shift in mindset. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) cannot continue to be caught in the vicious cycle of "playing both sides," nor can they develop if every business decision depends on a "request-and-grant" mechanism. In particular, the inclusion of concepts such as "space economy," "low-level economy," and "underground economy" in the strategic vision for the first time shows that the Party has placed the SOE sector on the axis of future development, where competition is not only based on scale, but also on technology and the ability to create new development spaces.

As someone deeply concerned about the management and operation of state capital, Ms. Pham Thuy Chinh assessed that this is a progressive approach, suitable for the development requirements in the new stage of the country's development.

Furthermore, Resolution No. 79-NQ/TW also set specific and very ambitious goals for 2030 and 2045. Dr. Nguyen Minh Thao assessed that achieving these goals requires greater political effort, more decisive, timely, and effective action. Significantly, based on these goals, Resolution No. 79-NQ/TW emphasized the need for governance reform, strengthening discipline, order, and transparency in the State Audit Office through guiding principles and solutions aimed at optimizing resources, removing bottlenecks, and enabling the State Audit Office to play a pioneering role in development, leading, paving the way, promoting industrialization and modernization, restructuring the economy, and establishing a new growth model...

And then, the role of state-owned enterprises such as Viettel, PVN, EVN, Vietnam Airlines... will be defined not only as growing stronger for themselves, but as truly becoming pillars to propel the country to greater heights.

OBJECTIVES OF RESOLUTION NO. 79-NQ/TW REGARDING STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES

By 2030:

- Strive to have 50 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) among the top 500 largest enterprises in Southeast Asia.

- Between 1 and 3 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will be among the world's 500 largest companies.

- 100% of state-owned enterprises implement modern corporate governance on a digital platform.

- 100% of economic groups and state-owned enterprises apply OECD governance principles.

By 2045:

- The goal is to have approximately 60 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) among the top 500 largest enterprises in Southeast Asia.

- Five state-owned enterprises are among the world's 500 largest companies.

- At least 50% of public service units must be self-sufficient in covering recurrent and investment expenditures, or operate effectively according to market mechanisms.

Thu Thuy

Source: https://nhandan.vn/minh-dinh-vi-the-vai-role-dan-dat-cua-kinh-te-nha-nuoc-post938520.html