Executive summary

The Government of Viet Nam has taken important steps in recent years to improve its ownership and corporate governance frameworks for state‑owned enterprises (SOEs). Viet Nam established the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises (CMSC) – a ministry-level entity – with a view to improving efficiency, facilitating equitisation and separating ownership of the country’s largest 19 SOEs and state corporate groups from the state’s regulatory function. It enacted a new Enterprise Law, subsequent Decrees and circulars to guide the streamlining of the SOE sector. The number of SOEs has been reduced from 12 000 in 1990s to around 2 100 today thanks to the government’s extensive divestment and equitisation programmes.