The State Capital Management Committee (SCMC) met with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on December 13 with the aim to promote co-operation between the two sides in the coming time.

The meeting between SCMC and IMF. Photo Nam Hai

On behalf of SCMC, Chairman Nguyen Hoang Anh, and leaders of certain departments and the Committee Office presided over the meeting with the IMF delegation headed by Alex Mourmouras.

Head of the IMF delegation Alex Mourmouras

On behalf of the IMF delegation, Mourmouras thanked the Committee leaders for their warm reception for and meeting with the delegation; and congratulated the Committee for having completed the receipt of 18 State-own enterprises.

The IMF delegation head said IMF works with Vietnam twice a year to update the country’s economic, financial, fiscal and budget developments. The working visits help IMF make report on Vietnam’s economic updates, which IMF hopes will be forwarded to the Committee through the State Bank of Vietnam.

Commenting on the Vietnam’s economic situation in 2018, Mourmouras said the global economic landscape has undergone changes, especially the US-China trade war has affected many economies in the world, including Vietnam’s. However, the Vietnam’s economy has achieved encouraging results over the past year in terms of economic growth and macroeconomic stability.

Mourmouras said during this visit, the IMF delegation had worked with various Vietnamese agencies to find out different aspects of the economy. And during the meeting with SCMS, IMF would like to learn about the mechanism for managing State capital at enterprises managed by SCMC. Also, IMF would like to share fine international experiences and practices in corporate governance, risk management, and so on.

SCMC chairman Nguyen Hoang Anh takes the floor

SCMC chairman Anh said the Committee was established with the aim to first and foremost separate the ministries’ and sectors’ management of State-own enterprises from the corporate governance and management practices. At the same time, the move affirms (SOEs) the role and contribution of the SOEs to the national socio-economic development.

Regarding strategic orientations for development, the chairman said in the near future the Committee will focus on reviewing production, business and financial situations of the 19 enterprises; and identify advantages and disadvantages of the enterprises, and so on. Then, the Committee will develop short-term and medium-term business plans for the enterprises as well as a common development strategy for the Committee in the time to come.

“The Committee set a target in the next five, and 10 years, to probably reduce the number of enterprises from 19 to 10, and if the enterprises prosper, their capital may be 1.5 to two times higher than the current level. Of note, the Committee will target to develop enterprises that are fully capable of international economic integration and competing with big corporations in the world,” said Anh.

At the meeting, the Committee leaders cleared the IMF experts’ concerns related to the statement that the snail’s pace of divestment and privatisation of the State-own enterprises in Vietnam over the past time. Anh said, with an open economy like Vietnam’s, the reality revealed that enterprises themselves had been proactive in reforming human resources, management and business strategies, and the leadership even before the Government initiated SOEs privatisation and divestment, thanks to which enterprises have achieved considerable results in production and business activities.

“Many held that the privatisation of SOEs in Vietnam remained slow, but in my view one should not look at the amount of capital divested to assess privatisation, as it’s more important to look at the quality of privatisation, and whether equitised enterprises are performing well, for example. Financially speaking, I believe that IMF experts also have the same perspective,” said the SCMC chairman.

He added that the Committee has built a set of corporate efficiency monitoring and evaluation indicators to help connect directly with the managed enterprises. The indicators are highly appreciated by experts and enterprises and are expected to help transparentise operations of the enterprises after a period of application.

Corporate efficiency monitoring and evaluation indicators is presented to the IMF experts

To elaborate the indicators to the IMF delegation, SCMS specialists made a detailed presentation on the indicators and responded to certain questions related to the indicators that the IMF experts put forward at the meeting.

Also at the meeting, IMF shared certain experiences in corporate governance, and risk management so the Committee might find it useful in the management of the enterprises in the coming time.

SCMC officials and the IMF delegations joint for a group photo

In his closing remarks, SCMC chairman thanked and appreciated the IMF delegation for their co-operation, and experience exchange and sharing. IMF is the first international organisation that initiated a meeting with the Committee soon after it was officially put into operation. The Chairman said he hoped to continue receiving the concern and experience exchange from IMF during the body’s working visits to Vietnam in the future.