General Director of SCIC, Lai Van Dao, addresses the corporation's review meeting. — Photo vccinews.com

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) will boost the process of divestment of non-core businesses at several state-owned enterprises (SOEs) this year.

This follows Decision 2344/QC-TTg of the Prime Minister, announced on December 2, 2013, which highlights the approval of the restructuring plan of the SCIC by 2015.

"SCIC will lead the divestment process at 376 companies operating in the areas that the state does not need to have a presence in, thereby reducing capital investments and additional enterprises to about 100," Lai Van Dao, general director of SCIC, recently told Vietnam Business Forum (vccinews.com).

During this year, the corporations will have to consider buying financial instruments issued by SOEs if they fail to divest capital held at various banks.

It's good news for the state-owned groups and corporations, which were finding it difficult to find partners for stake transfers, especially in the real estate, financial and securities sectors.

In some circumstances, a loss may occur during the divestment process. Therefore, enterprises are afraid of taking responsibility for a loss and only conduct divestments when the capital market is strong.

To help SOEs speed up non-core divestments, a new resolution is expected to be approved by the government in the first quarter of 2014 to allow SOEs to divest capital below the par value after setting up reserve funds for the investments as required.

The corporation (SCIC), formed under Decision No 151/2005/QD-TTg dated June 20, 2005, is responsible for managing and investing state capital in various sectors, including financial services, energy, manufacturing, and telecommunications. Transportation, consumer products and healthcare sectors are also under its purview.

In November 1, 2013, the government issued Decree 151/2013/ND-CP, which enabled a number of new mechanisms consistent with significant functions of the SCIC, including the sale of state-owned capital. Thereby, the SCIC can use several ways to sell capital, such as matching, public auction, competitive offers, sale agreements and stock swaps. — VNS