When resources are sufficient, state-owned enterprises can accelerate
Established in 2004, Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) is a state-owned enterprise assigned to participate in investing in many key national expressway projects. However, according to Mr. Le Quang Vu, Member of the Member Council of Vietnam Expressway Corporation, for a long time, the enterprise fell into a state of "institutional and resource congestion".
In the period 2021-2022, VEC's charter capital was less than 1,000 billion VND, while total assets recorded were about 108,000 billion VND, before adjustment it was 1,250,000 billion VND. Unbalanced capital structure caused businesses to face many difficulties in capital mobilization, not having enough financial conditions to participate in new projects, leading to missing the beat in some North-South expressway projects.
Mr. Vu said that the turning point only came when the National Assembly approved the policy of increasing charter capital for VEC. After completing the procedures, the enterprise's charter capital increased to nearly 40,000 billion VND. Immediately after that, the project implementation capacity was clearly improved.
In early 2025 alone, VEC simultaneously implemented large projects such as expanding the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay expressway, expanding the Noi Bai - Lao Cai expressway section Yen Bai - Lao Cai, and participating in PPP investment in some new ring road and expressway projects. In 2026, the enterprise will continue to implement many other projects. This shows that when sufficient resources are allocated, state-owned enterprises can accelerate and take on a very large volume of work.
From this reality, Mr. Le Quang Vu believes that the role of the state economy today is not only "leading", but must be pioneering, paving the way, and leading development. To do so, the mechanism must create conditions for state-owned enterprises to have sufficient real competitive capacity.
Mr. Vu also suggested that state-owned enterprises should not play a role in all fields, but focus on key and pillar industries and fields of the economy. Ensure the autonomy of state-owned enterprises in the market mechanism, accompanied by transparency and accountability. The State needs to maintain capital, promote arrangement, equitization, and perfect institutions so that state-owned enterprises dare to think, dare to do, dare to take responsibility; trust in assigning major tasks to core state-owned enterprises, which play a backbone role in strategic industries.
Defining playgrounds for state and private economies to develop together
According to Mr. Hoang Van Cuong, Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly, in the context that Vietnam is simultaneously implementing major resolutions on economic development, including Resolution 79 on the State Economic Sector and Resolution 68 on private economic development, clearly defining the operating methods of each sector is an important requirement. According to him, these two sectors are not opposite, but if the operating methods are not clarified, the risk of competition causing damage to each other is real. Therefore, the requirement is to clearly define the way to go, so that the private economy plays an important driving force, while the State economy plays a leading role in necessary fields.
According to Mr. Cuong, the action program to implement Resolution 79 needs to clarify the role of defining the State's "playground". Some fields directly related to sovereignty and security such as aviation and maritime management need to be held by the State. For other fields such as energy, the private sector can participate and the State needs to clearly define the role of each sector. Even in the State sector, the tasks of each enterprise also need to be clearly defined, accompanied by a focused capital allocation strategy, avoiding scattered resources.
This approach aims to ensure complementarity between the two sectors, maximize social resources, and at the same time maintain the leading role of the state economy in key sectors.
Breakthrough in positioning the role of the state economy
From the perspective of policy planning, Mr. Nguyen Nhu Quynh, Director of the Institute of Strategy and Economic Policy, Ministry of Finance, said that the breakthrough point of Resolution 79 lies in the new approach in positioning the State economy. The leading role continues to be affirmed, but is expressed more clearly and focused.
According to Resolution 79, State resources must be fully accounted for, operated according to market principles, while still ensuring socio-economic, defense and security goals. An important requirement is to separate the use of State resources to provide public goods and services and perform political tasks from ordinary production and business activities of enterprises. This approach helps ensure transparency and fairness in evaluating the effectiveness of state capital use.
The Resolution also identifies focusing resources on investing in the development of a number of large-scale state-owned corporations and enterprises, playing a leading role in key and strategic industries, and at the same time encouraging investment abroad in fields with comparative advantages or large market demand. Along with that is the orientation of restructuring investment and state capital business in a professional direction, towards forming a national investment fund model; developing a number of important public non-business units with international competitiveness; opening up new development spaces such as space economy, space industry and high-tech fields.
Representatives of the Ministry of Finance also said that the Ministry is developing and seeking opinions on the National Assembly's Resolution on specific mechanisms and policies for state economic development and the Government's Action Program to implement Resolution 79.
