Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Ministry of Planning and Investment has proposedspecial policies for large State-owned enterprises (SOEs) to make themspearheads in key industries of the economy.

The policieswere mentioned in a first ever draft project about developing large SOEs whichaimed to promote the roles of selected SOEs in driving economic growth.

Threeindustries would be piloted first, including telecommunications, energy anddefence. Accordingly, three SOEs proposed to be selected for the pilotimplementation were Mobifone, EVN and Viettel.

The ministrysaid telecommunications, energy and defence were important industries to thedevelopment and security of a country, which would supply indispensable inputsfor production and business, provide infrastructure for digital transformationand in the fourth Industrial Revolution as well as ensuring national defence.

Mobifone wasproposed for the telecommunications industry because it had a good financialsituation and business results among three telecommunications companies,according to the ministry.

In addition,Mobifone had good technology and corporate governance system which wereinherrited from the previous cooperation with Sweden’s Kinnevik/Comvik Group.Mobifone was also focusing heavily on digital transformation and developing anecosystem for digital transformation for private companies.

In theenergy industry, Vietnam Electricity (EVN) was proposed because EVN accountedfor nearly 50 percent of the country’s total electricity output together withexperiences in investing in power sectors, especially clean energy.

Viettel wasproposed for the defence industry because it was taking the lead in researchand development, manufacturing, technology transfer, import and export ofmilitary technical equipment and dual-use items. At the same time, Viettel withthe focus on high-tech defence, electronics and telecommunications and networksecurities industries set the target to become one among the top 80 enterprisewith the highest revenue from defence activities in the world by 2025.

SelectedSOEs would play roles in paving the way and leading other enterprises in theformation and expansion of supply and value chains regionally and globally, theministry said.

The ministryalso proposed solutions for Mobifone, EVN and Viettel to make them spearheads.

Accordingly,the privatisation of Mobifone would be sped up so the State would hold a stakeof 51 percent of its charter capital after privatisation. The privatisation ofMobifone was proposed to be carried out before VNPT’s. In addition, noforeign strategic investor would be selected for Mobifone’s privatisation.

EVN would beencouraged to play the key role in investing in renewable energy projects.

For Viettel,a defence industry development fund would be founded, sourced from the group’safter-tax profit, together with a venture capital fund to promote thecommercialisation of new products.

Under thedraft project, the ministry proposed five criteria to identify spearhead SOEs,including charter capital from 1.8 trillion VND or higher, dominant marketshare (from 30 percent), good governance system, operating in key sectors suchas infrastructure, industry, energy, telecommunications and finance and bankingand State-wholly owned or State holding the controlling stakes.

Accordingly,a total of 17 economic groups and corporations were proposed to be selectedfollowing these criteria.

The ministrysaid that the operation efficiency of these 17 SOEs was not commensurate withthe resources on hand.

Statisticsshowed that these 17 SOEs had assets worth 2.56 quadrillion VND in 2019./.