Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue on Wednesday slammed the delay in closing down or restructuring losing industry and trade projects, stressing that the Government would not pump money to save them. — Photo xulynuocthai.net

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue on Wednesday slammed the delay in closing down or restructuring losing industry and trade projects, stressing that the Government would not pump money to save them.

“This can not be delayed any longer,” Hue said at a conference of the Government’s steering committee for handling inefficiencies of firms under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. “The prolonged stagnation or poor performance is causing significant losses.”

Hue toured delayed and badly-performing projects from mid-December 2016 to late January 2017 to survey their problems and seek out solutions.

Those included the Ninh Binh Fertiliser Plant, Ha Bac Fertiliser Plant, DAP Fertiliser Dinh Vu and DAP Fertiliser Lao Cai, Dinh Vu Polyester Fibre Plant, Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel’s phase 2, Dung Quat Shipyard, Dung Quat Bio-Ethanol Plant, Quy Sa Mine and Lao Cai Cast Iron and Steel Plant.

Hue said the Ministry of Ministry and Trade must come up with solutions and report them to the Government by March.

“The Government will not pour money into these loss-making and poorly-performing projects any more,” Hue added.

Among the under-performing projects, Ninh Binh Fertiliser Plant resumed operation since early 2017 and was running at 80 per cent of its capacity after 30-per-cent budget cuts.

Hue citied Ninh Binh Fertiliser Plant as an example, urging other projects, such as Dinh Vu Polyester Fibre Plant and Dung Quat Bio-Ethanol Plant to calculate their costs and resume operation.

Deadlines set

Hastening the restructuring of State-owned enterprises was addressed in a Government resolution issued Tuesday on renovating growth models and economic restructuring.

Accordingly, the Government asked the handling of prolonged loss-making and under-performing projects be completed by June 2018, even allowing these projects to go bust.

The Ministry of Finance must complete and submit to the Government the project on SOEs restructuring, while the Ministry of Planning and Investment must complete the project of establishing a committee to act as a State ownership representative within the first quarter of this year.

The divestment of State capital must also be completed by 2019. The transfer of State ownership to the State Capital Investment Corporation must be completed by December. — VNS