State-owned enterprises play a leading role in many fields
In the context of high economic growth requirements posing a strong need to mobilize resources for development investment, the role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) continues to be emphasized as an important force of the state economy, playing a leading role in many key industries and fields.
Mr. Vu Hong Phuong - Director of the State Enterprise Development Agency (Ministry of Finance) said that the guiding viewpoint of the Party and State in the past time has consistently affirmed that SOEs are an important material force of the state economy; playing a leading role in essential industries and fields of the economy.
The SOE sector has contributed to building the socio-economic infrastructure system, promoting economic restructuring, macroeconomic stability, inflation control, and at the same time implementing tasks on national defense, security and ensuring social security.
Resolution No. 79-NQ/TW on state economic development has oriented to continue to promote the restructuring of SOEs, improve operational efficiency, apply advanced technology and modern management models according to international standards. In which, the focus is on building and developing large-scale economic groups, corporations and SOEs to play a pioneering and leading role, creating motivation to promote key and strategic industries and fields with competitiveness at the regional and global levels.
According to the Director of the Department of Enterprise Development, in the past time, the legal system on state capital management and investment in enterprises has had many new regulations, contributing to removing difficulties and obstacles related to state capital investment for enterprises. However, to achieve double-digit growth, it is not possible to rely solely on budget capital but it is necessary to strongly mobilize other social resources.
In which, capital mobilization through the stock market is identified as a particularly important channel, especially for equitized SOEs, which are public companies listed or registered for trading on the stock market.
Mr. Phuong emphasized that, in addition to creating more resources for development investment, listing and trading registration on the stock market also promotes businesses to apply international financial reporting standards, improve management quality towards modernity and approaching international practices.
This not only helps businesses improve publicity and transparency but also creates favorable conditions to seize opportunities to mobilize capital to serve production, business and investment development activities in the coming period.
Need to increase autonomy for state-owned enterprises
Along with the orientation of developing large-scale SOEs to play a leading role in key industries and fields, the requirement to improve operational efficiency, improve governance mechanisms and remove barriers to mechanisms and policies is also set out to create more room for businesses to proactively innovate, mobilize resources and promote the leading role of the economy.
Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong, Vice President of the Vietnam Economic Science Association, said that it is necessary to clearly distinguish between state management and corporate governance. He cited the provisions of the Law on Management and Investment of State Capital in Enterprises (Law 68/2025), in which the assessment of capital preservation and development is based on the overall results of enterprises.
In investment activities, there may be cases where many projects are losing money but the overall business is still profitable and still meets the requirements for preserving and developing capital. "For example, when a business invests, there may be 9 loss-making projects, 1 profitable project, and the overall business invests still profitably, which will be in accordance with regulations," Mr. Cuong said.
However, he believes that Law 68/2025 still has points that need to be amended related to profit distribution. Currently, regulations on profit distribution have interfered in corporate governance activities. He gave an example, if a business has a profit of less than 10,000 billion VND, the Government decides on profit distribution; if the profit is over 10,000 billion VND, it must wait for the National Assembly to decide.
According to Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong, it is necessary to amend in the direction of increasing autonomy for businesses along with management mechanisms and capital preservation.
Regarding the mechanism to protect cadres who dare to think and dare to do, he said that although there are currently regulations to protect dynamic, creative, and non-self-seeking individuals, many cadres are still hesitant due to safety concerns.
He proposed that the state sector should have regulations allowing officials to have the right to think and implement different ways of doing things than usual, with the condition that they must report publicly in writing before implementation.
According to Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong, international experience shows that many countries have policies to support and assist SOEs to form strong corporations, creating a foundation for an independent and self-reliant economy. According to him, countries that want to build an independent and self-reliant economy must have large corporations playing a leading role, and at the same time have support and create conditions from the state for businesses to be capable of developing and competing.
