Photo: ueb.vnu.edu.vn

PANO - The Ministry of Finance (MOF) of Vietnam and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide package program on dialogue for key leaders of MoF for the topic of State-owned Enterprise (SoE) reform, by a high-level mission led by Minister of Finance of Vietnam to Singapore for experience exchange and dialogue, followed by a 5-day training program for officials in charge of supporting the design of implementation plan of SoE reform proposal.

The dialogue and training are aimed to share the role of SoE in economy and role of Government with vision of SoE reform (including conceptual debate and practical background) through experience of Singapore in transition from 100% wholly owned SoE economy to current economy (including concept and ideology for such turning point taking into account of context that time), with strong emphasis on specific measures and sequential order of practices including SoE categorization, master plan and implementation among other macroeconomic reform, besides related Cooperate Governance/Finance, operational structure, legal/financial regulations (how to ensure the voice of the Government over SoEs that hold asset/capital of the State, etc) in Singapore in its historical reform.

Replying to the urgent need and request of MoF for the development of capacity in checking and debating the reform program of Economic Groups and Corporations by end of June, the program are made to help facilitate understanding and thinking of the way forward for Vietnam in its SoE reform. On this occasion, Mr. Yoshio Wada, Deputy Director General of Southeast Asia Department, JICA could share some experience from corporate restructuring in Japan as well as his research on SoE reform in Vietnam in 1990s.

Under the same framework, JICA provided training programs focusing on Project Cycle Management for MoF in March, June, August and December 2011 in Vietnam, and advanced courses in March, July and September in Philippines.

This technical assistance is implemented under the framework of agreement between MOF and JICA which is effective between March 1st, 2011 and March 31st, 2012.

Further capacity building activities will be discussed between both side to enhance the public finance management capacity of MoF staff, including macro economic management, public investment (with emphasis on SOEs), debt management (with emphasis on local government), capital market, and public accounting, by sharing Japanese experience on the related fields and providing consulting by JICA experts, under new technical cooperation (expected to be launched in next years).

Chung Anh