Up to 21% of Vietnamese state-owned or partially state-owned enterprises suffered losses of more than VND30 trillion ($1.45 billion) in 2020, local newspapers reported.
Citing a report of the Vietnamese government sent to the National Assembly about the activities of enterprises using state capital in 2020, state-controlled newspapers said that Vietnam has 807 enterprises operating with all or part of the state capital or capital contributed by the state.
Of which, more than half are enterprises with 100% state capital, nearly a quarter are enterprises in which the state holds more than 50% capital, the rest are state owned enterprises with less than 50% of their capital.
The dark side of the picture given by the government report is that there are 124 wholly state-owned enterprises doing poorly and still having accumulated losses in 2020 totaling nearly VND31 trillion.
If including enterprises with a part of state capital, there are 169 out of 807 enterprises, equivalent to approximately 21%, and accumulated losses totaling nearly VND34 trillion.
Some enterprises with large accumulated losses were named as Vietnam Chemical Group with a loss of nearly VND5.4 trillion, Vietnam National Shipping Lines with a loss of nearly VND3.2 trillion, and Vietnam Railways with a loss of more than VND1.2 trillion.
Still, the report said that in the same year, 15% of the 807 enterprises directly or indirectly linked to the state suffered losses totaling nearly VND16 trillion. Accounting for most of that figure, up to more than VND15 trillion is the loss incurred by 79 enterprises in which the state holds 50% or more of the capital.
Noticeable in the report sent to the National Assembly quoted by the press as a number of large enterprises and corporations using state capital. In which, the Vietnam Airlines Corporation alone suffered a loss of more than VND11 trillion.
The number of state-owned enterprises and corporations with a loss of hundreds of billions mentioned above includes the Saigon Tourism Corporation with a loss of VND318 billion, the Vietnam Satellite Digital Television Company Limited (Vietnam Television Station) with a loss in broadcasting generated VND265 billion, Southern Food Corporation incurred a loss of VND210 billion, Vietnam Construction and Industry Corporation incurred a loss of VND154 billion, Dong Thap Petroleum Trading Joint Stock Company suffered a loss VND102 billion.
Besides, there are many state-owned enterprises with losses of several billion to several tens of billions of dong.
The bright side of the picture, according to the government’s report, is that in general, state-owned enterprises have a pre-tax profit of nearly VND163 trillion in 2020. However, the report notes that this number decreased by 22% compared to 2019.
Still, the report said that by the end of 2020, the total capital invested by the Vietnamese government in 807 enterprises is approximately VND1.6 million billion.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
