Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - State-owned-enterprises (SoEs) are largelyunprepared for the demands of the digital age despite pressing demand forchange in the sector, a researcher has said.

Trinh DucChieu, deputy head of reform research and enterprise development under theCentral Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), made the statement in aworkshop to discuss how SoEs are getting ready to adoptdigital technology in Hanoi on November 5. 

The Government hasearmarked SoEs to drive economic growth and many recent directives saythey must embrace the technological revolution to restructure and enhancecompetitiveness.  

A recent CIEM surveyshowed 35 percent of SoEs have just only started the digitalisationprocess. Smaller SoEs tend to have made modest progress with an average scoreof 1.84/5 based on CIEM's ranking criteria while larger SoEs tend to scorehigher at 3.07/5. SoEs with fewer shares held by the State tend to have mademore progress than others. 

Notably, privateenterprises, who possess less computing power or the number of computers, tendto utilise them a lot more often than SoEs in most fields. The survey alsoshowed most SoEs had a high level of enthusiasm and expectation regardingthe digitalisation process and how it will help spur growth and businessopportunities in the next five years, according to CIEM's survey.

Le Hai Dang,head of Vietnam Electricity (EVN) development strategy department, saidEVN has implemented 39 projects since last year to speed up itsdigitalisation.

"Tofocus on innovation and research and development is an innate need of acompany to better serve customers and improve operational efficiency,"said Dang. 

Daunting challenges

Speaking at the workshop,experts voiced concern over the digitalisation readiness showed among SoEs,saying it would be a long shot to expect them to lead the way in terms ofinnovation. 

Chieu said there were stillmany shortcomings and limitations in Vietnam’s digitalisation strategy,such as a lack of clear objectives and dedicated funds for SoE's technologicalresearch and development. Despite SoE's high expectation to perform, they havenot been placed among the country's innovation ecosystem and desperately needsupport to access new technologies, especially small-to-mediumenterprises. 

SoEs alsohave a hard time attracting and retain IT talents due to their much lesslucrative compensation policies, which are often regulated by State's labourcode, compared to the private sector.

"It'sdifficult for SoEs to compete with the private sector to keep IT professionals.As it stands, we are losing them to private companies," Dang from EVNsaid. 

Arepresentative from Petro Vietnam said another reason for slowdigitalisation among SoEs was their risk-averse nature. Innovationoften requires trial and error before it can produce results and failure maybring legal consequences for SoEs' leaders as the State's priority is topreserve its capital./.