Foreword

The Government of Viet Nam has made progress in recent years to improve its frameworks for the ownership and corporate governance of its state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This Review assesses the corporate governance framework of the Viet Nam state-owned sector relative to the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises (“SOE Guidelines”). It then puts forward recommendations to help the Vietnamese authorities address remaining challenges and further professionalise the state ownership function. The Review was requested by Viet Nam’s Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises (CMSC) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) under a project supported financially by the Government of Korea. It takes place in the context of Viet Nam’s ambition to improve the governance of SOEs by revising and aligning the Law No. 69/2014/QH13 on Management and Utilisation of State Capital with the SOE Guidelines.

This Review is based on (1) information submitted by the Vietnamese authorities, including response to the OECD’s standard questionnaires and a letter addressed to the Vietnamese authorities from the Chair of the OECD Working Party on State Ownership and Privatisation Practices (the “Working Party”); (2) independent desk research by the OECD Secretariat; and (3) additional documents and information obtained through a series of virtual fact-finding meetings in 2021 and 2022 with relevant stakeholders including representatives of government officials, SOEs and independent think tanks.

The report draws on the chapter on “Enhancing SOE Efficiency in Viet Nam” in the 2020 OECD Multi-Dimensional Review of Viet Nam. It also reflects inputs from the webinar on “Responsible Business Conduct and Vietnamese SOEs” co-organised by OECD and CMSC in 2021 which brought together officials from the CMSC and several major SOEs in Viet Nam.

This report is the ninth country review conducted by the Working Party, the body responsible for encouraging and overseeing the effective implementation of the SOE Guidelines. This report is published within the framework of the Viet Nam – OECD Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on 5 November 2021 by the Viet Nam Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son and the OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann in the presence of Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister of Viet Nam.

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