The Government will consider increasing the foreign ownership cap for
non-State-owned enterprises, said Minister and Chairman of the
Government Office Vu Duc Dam.
Speaking at a press
conference on September 29, the minister said the administration of
foreign owned corporations needed to be clear, transparent and in line
with international standards.
He said the Government
would soon devise a foreign-ownership ceiling for private sector
businesses across each sector. In the banking system, big banks
including Vietinbank, Vietcombank and BIDV have all equitised.
The Government currently enforces a maximum foreign-ownership quota of
30 percent, but is set to lift the quota in favour of private sector
development.
The Government would also act to protect
the legal rights of ownership to guarantee certainty and stability for
investors, said Vu Duc Dam.
The move follows a ten
year campaign to re-arrange and equitise state-owned enterprises;
cutting back on non-core businesses from 12,000 to 1,300.
“We have followed a scheduled road map and we will continue to carry
out equitisation of these enterprises,” said Vu Duc Dam.
In an interview with Bloomberg in New York last week, Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung said the Government had planned to let foreign companies
own up to 49 percent of local banks in the near future.
There are also plans to sell shares in companies such as Vietnam
Airlines Corp, Vietnam PostsTelecommunications Group, and Vietnam
Oil Gas Group.
The Prime Minister also said
the government plans to devalue the VND as much as 2 percent by the end
of the year due to reports it is overvalued against the USD.
However, the Prime Minister said the timing of a devaluation would be dependent on the market.
In June, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) raised the inter-bank average
exchange rate by 1 percent to 21.036 VND per 1 USD.
This is the first move since 2011, with the bank saying any
adjustments to the VND value this year would vary within a 3 percent
range.-VNA