ADB Funds $630M for Vietnam to Restructure Major SOEs in 10 Years

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has to date provided $630 million in financial support for Vietnam to help the country pilot restructuring some state-owned enterprises (SOEs) over the past ten years. The restructuring of SOEs aims to help Vietnam improve the economy’s competitiveness, Takehiko Nakao, president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) told the state-run Dau Tu newspaper reported. Vietnam should create fair business environment for private companies along with offering incentives to them in move to boost development the private sector. According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, SOEs eat up over half of state funds, account for 70% of the country’s debts and more than 80% of the outstanding loans. Vietnam has been warned of facing risks of falling into a middle-income trap in the next two decade if it can maintain an annual economic growth rate of 6% by then, a World Bank report said. (Dau Tu – Investment Sept 22 p3)