Customers at a Mobifone store in Ha Noi. Mobifone is one of 19 firms under the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises (CMSC)'s supersivion.

According to CMSC, the supervision will enhance business responsibility in compliance with regulations related to the use of capital and assets and detect shortcomings in production and business.

Under the plan, CMSC will focus on three tasks: maintenance and development of State capital, supervision over firms’ activities in projects as well as review the operations to help set targets and improve competitiveness while following laws and regulations on management and use of State capital and assets.

All the work aims to enhance financial transparency.

The 19 groups include the Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), Viet Nam Electricity (EVN), Viet Nam National Coal and Minerals Holding Group (Vinacomin), Viet Nam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT), MobiFone, Vietnam Airlines, Airport Corporation of Viet Nam (ACV), Viet Nam Railway, Viet Nam Expressway Corporation (VEC), Viet Nam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines), Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex), Viet Nam National Chemical Group (Vinachem), Viet Nam National Tobbacco Corporation (Vinataba), Viet Nam Rubber Group (VRG), Viet Nam National Coffee Corporation (Vinacafe), Viet Nam Forest Corporation (Vinafor), Viet Nam Northern Food Corporation (Vinafood 1), Viet Nam Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2) and State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC).

These enterprises are run by five ministries. Topping the list is the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) under the management of the Ministry of Finance. The remaining 18 SOEs are managed by the ministries of Industry and Trade (MoIT), Transport (MoT), Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and Information and Communications (MIC).

CMSC will pay special attention to the Viet Nam Electricity (EVN), who are currently losing money in a number of projects.

Of the 13 current investment projects of EVN, only two of them have started to make profit, the rest 11 have not yet shown signs of effectiveness.

PVN has asked the Government's permission on the use of State capital to handle difficulties in the loss-making projects.

Viet Nam Chemical Group (Vinachem) is also facing difficulties in its potassium rock salt processing and exploitation project in the province of Khammuane in Laos after pouring VND10 trillion into the megaproject over 15 years.

According to consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2017, the total value of State equity in these 19 groups and corporations reached more than VND1 quadrillion (US$43 billion) and the total value of assets was VND2.3 quadrillion, accounting for 42 per cent of the country’s total GDP.

Under a 2018 decree establishing the CMSC, the committee is responsible for managing State capital in companies that are entirely owned by the State, in joint stock companies and in limited liability businesses with State investment and multiple members. — VNS

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