HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Industry and Trade will transfer State capital ownership representative rights in five enterprises to the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) in the first quarter of this year.

They included the Việt Nam Steel Corporation, the Foreign Trade Freight Forwarding and Warehousing Joint Stock Company, the Việt Nam Agricultural Products Joint Stock Company, the Construction and Import-Export Joint Stock Company and the Construction Investment and Building Materials Joint Stock Company, according to the ministry’s recently-issued Directive No 3/CT-BCT.

The move is part of the ministry’s efforts to implement the Prime Minister’s Directive No 01/CT-TTg issued early this year about speeding up the restructuring, privatisation and divestment in State-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The Prime Minister’s directive sets March 31 as the deadline for ministries, ministerial-level agencies and local authorities to complete the transfer of State capital ownership representative rights in SOEs to the SCIC.

The progress of State capital divestment and SOE privatisation has been slow in recent years, so the Prime Minister has asked ministries and local authorities to review and list SOEs which must be privatised or divested from between 2018-20 to ensure feasibility. If divestment and privatisation face difficulties, the SOEs must be transferred to the SCIC.

According to Nguyễn Chí Thành, the SCIC’s deputy director, State capital ownership representative rights in around 100 SOEs must be transferred to the SCIC.

Thành expected the transfer to be completed before the deadline.

After receiving State capital ownership representative rights, the SCIC would focus on implementing financial and operational restructuring to improve efficiency and maximise the value of State capital before divestment.

In 2018, the SCIC received State capital ownership representative rights in 14 SOEs worth more than VNĐ4 trillion (US$174 million), significant increases over sums received in the two previous years which were at around VNĐ1 trillion each. It sold State capital ownership representative rights in nine enterprises to collect VNĐ7.6 trillion in 2018, nearly three times higher than the cost price.  

The SCIC held a portfolio of 144 enterprises as of the end of 2018 with a value of VNĐ20.94 trillion out of a charter capital of VNĐ85 trillion.

The SCIC reported an after-tax profit of VNĐ8.2 trillion in 2018, 30 per cent higher than 2017. — VNS