(VOVworld) - The Prime Minister has approved a project to restructure state-owned enterprises until 2015 to turn the state economic sector into the key engine of the national economy. VOV reporter Thu Hoa surveyed some economists on this crucial project.

Under the project, state-run enterprises will be divided into 3 groups. The 1^st group includes wholly state-run businesses, which are especially important for socio-economic development, linking to national defense and security. The 2^nd group consists of joint stock companies where the state holds more than 50% of shares. The 3^rd group is composed of enterprises which suffer chronic losses and will be sold, turned into joint stock companies or dissolved. The restructuring process will first focus on enterprises involved in construction, trade, telecommunications, publishing, and water supply and drainage. Tran Hau, Deputy Director of the Academy of Finance, suggested that restructuring, or equitization in other words, should begin with  economic giants such as the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, the Vietnam National Coal - Mineral Industries Group, and Viettel Telecom, and should target private investors rather than strategic investors: “The State should list the sectors it wants to totally control or play the key role in. Even major economic groups should be equitized extensively to attract private investment and create conditions for the private sector to take part in state governance. Equitization will continue to be a vicious circle if share holders remain state owned enterprises.”

The recently approved project asks state-run businesses to stop investing in areas other than their core operations. Bui Ngoc Son of the Institute of World Economics and Politics recommends that the State engage only in socially and economically important sectors and areas that the private sector can not afford. He says equitization should be done cautiously and gradually in the social service sector. The state should exclusively control the infrastructure system in the rail, aviation, oild and oil and gas sectors and allow the private sector to get involved in service provision. Son said:“The State should share more of its ownership of businesses with the private sector. However, privitization in public services needs to be done step by step and go hand in hand with support programs to help restructured enterprises stabilize their operations.”

Experts believe that in addition to support programs, the State should give more power to ministeries and agencies to monitor state-owned enterprises. Doctor Tran Tien Cuong of the Central Institute for Economic Management says it’s necessary to strengthen the role, function and the supervision capacity of the owners of state-run enterprises: “We should pay more attention to the role of state management. The enteprise owners’ management should be separated from state adminstrative management to ensure owners’ management capacity.”

One of the measures of the project on restructuring state-owned enterprises is to classify enterprises to be equitised. The Vietnamese govnerment considers this project a core task from now until 2015.