The scale of State-owned enterprises controlled by the State Capital Management Committee is less than the initial plan, according to the latest draft of the decree on the functions, tasks and organisational structure of the committee.

Under the draft, the committee would manage State-owned capital at 20 corporations, instead of 21 as initially proposed a few months ago.

The Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) - the agency that has directly compiled the draft of the decree - said this committee would be the State representative at 20 State-owned corporations. Those corporations have a total State-owned capital of VND821 trillion (US$36 billion) and a total value of assets at over VND1.5 quadrillion.

Those figures are equal to 50 per cent of the State-owned capital and the total value of assets at the wholly State-owned enterprise sector.

The corporation removed from the list of those managed by the committee is the Cuu Long Corporation of Investment Development and Management for Infrastructure Project, reported vov.vn. Therefore, the total asset value of the 20 enterprises is about VND1.5 quadrillion, much lower than the previous estimated figure.

If the decree is approved, the deadline for transferring the enterprises to the committee would be completed by the end of this year.

However, there are still some concerns about the overlap in management between the committee and the ministries and ministerial-level agencies which are managing these corporations.

Phan Duc Hieu, deputy head of CIEM and the representative of the team compiling the draft, said the draft of the decree was designed based on the principle that the committee would implement duties and rights of a representative agency for the owners under the Law on Management and Use of State Capital Invested in Production and Business at Enterprises (Law 67/2014/QH13). Meanwhile, ministries managing the sectors would continue their management tasks for these corporations.

That means the ministries and State offices would manage them through enacting policies, while the committee would implement ownership functions for them, Hieu said.

He said the committee would have a chairman and at most four vice chairmen who are appointed or dismissed by the Prime Minister, in accordance with the law.

This committee has nine departments, less than the 11 departments as initially planned. They include the Department of Agriculture; Department of Industry; Department of Energy; Department of Technology and Infrastructure; Department of General Affairs; Department of Legislation and Internal Control; Department of Staff Organisation; Administration Office; and the Information Centre. — VNS