October 17, 2012
From Frances Yoon
Hanoi has announced plans to restructure its bloated state-owned enterprises by selling off assets or listing them on the stock exchange. But it most needs to root out the deep-seated cronyism that permeates these companies and the banking sector. Frances Yoon reports.
Vietnam is stumbling under a mountain of debt. And it could yet fall.
The country’s financial woes come courtesy of a huge influx of foreign direct investment (FDI) over the past decade, which fuelled an unwise spending spree by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) into unrelated businesses.
State-run utility PetroVietnam Oil & Gas (PVN), for example, stockpiled assets in construction, hotels and even a taxi company. Some SOEs had as many as 400 subsidiaries.
Read more: http://www.asiamoney.com/Article/3104210/Search-Results/Vietnams-long-road-to-SOE-reform.html?Keywords=Vietnam&OrderType=1
