The plan for the merger of the Ha Noi and HCM stock exchanges has been submitted to the Government for review, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Deputy finance minister Huynh Quang Hai said at the meeting on Wednesday that the ministry had accelerated the development of the amended securities law to meet the deadline set by the Government.

The ministry had continued restructuring the securities market by using new models to develop the market, attracting different types of investors and drawing more foreign capital inflow, he said, adding that more inspections had been carried out to tackle violations.

As of the end of June, the total value of the securities market had risen 10.7 per cent from the beginning of 2018 to account for 77.7 per cent of the country’s GDP, Hai said.

The finance deputy minister also reported that the ministry had been working on the improvement of policies on re-arranging the administration of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and increasing their business performances.

“Seven decrees have been submitted to the Government for official release, six of which are about charter capital and organisation of six corporations and groups,” Hai said. “The ministry has been proactively pushing State-funded corporations to implement the SOE restructuring plan.”

In the first six months of 2018, eight of 85 SOEs gained approval from government agencies for their equitisation plans with total corporate value of VND29.4 trillion (US$1.3 billion) – of which State ownership was worth VND15.2 trillion.

Those SOEs managed to sell VND2.5 trillion worth of book value and received VND6.4 trillion worth of stake sales. Of the figure, the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), which represents the Government to take control of its capital in SOEs, sold VND211 billion worth of book-value stakes in eight SOEs to earn back VND2.6 trillion.

“In general, the process of re-arrangement and equitisation of SOEs and divestment of State capital have lagged behind the Government’s plan. Since the start of the SOE equitisation policy, total selling value of State ownership has accounted for only 8 per cent of its total capital in the SOEs,” the finance ministry reported. — VNS