The Asian Development Bank (ADB) hasapproved a 630 million USD multitranche financing facility for Vietnamfor further reforms of major State-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The financial assistance aims to make SOEs more efficient, profitableand transparent in a bid to spur economic growth and open upopportunities for the private sector, said the ADB in a press releaseavailable to Vietnam News Agency on Dec. 14.

The assistance titled Vietnam SOE Reform and Corporate GovernanceFacilitation Programme demonstrates ADB’s support to the Government’sreform agenda through financial and technical assistance.

ADB’s new programme will also provide training and other assistance toGovernmental institutions engaged in the SOE reform process, such asthe Debt and Asset Trading Corporation.

Under this financial umbrella, ADB will provide 6 million USD from itsordinary capital resources (OCR) to strengthen the balance sheets ofselected corporations through debt restructuring. As much as 30 millionUSD from its Asian Development Fund (ADF) is used to supportoperational and corporate governance improvement and institutionalstrengthening.

ADB’s funds make up almost 36 percent of the estimated 1.77 billion USDcost of SOE reforms until 2015. The remainder is expected to come fromthe Government’s contributions and internal resources of participatingcorporations and strategic investors.

In the first stage, ADB will provide13 million USD to support the transformation of the Song Da group.

The Ministry of Finance has been assigned to execute the programme that runs from December 2009 to December 2015./.