Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked ministries, sectors andState-owned enterprises (SOEs) to speed up their restructuring, sayingthat if the work is not completed as schedule, their leading officialsshould voluntarily step down.

Addressing aGovernment conference to review the restructuring of SOEs in the firstseven months of 2014 in Hanoi on August 6, PM Dung noted that theimportant tasks are to re-arrange and strengthen the managerialpersonnel and make the divestment process transparent.

Ministries and sectors need to better policies to deal withdifficulties arising during the restructuring and equitisation, headded.

The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids andSocial Affairs was requested to work out measures coping with labourredundancy during the process. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agricultureand Rural Development was urged to intensify assistance for ethnicpeople who have participated in forest planting and protection.

According to a report by the National Steering Committee forEnterprise Reform and Development, 76 businesses have been re-organisedso far this year, of which 55 were re-arranged, two dissolved, 15merged, three filed for bankruptcy and one was sold.

Several ministries, localities and enterprises remain sluggish inrestructuring, including the Ministries of Culture, Sports and Tourism,Health, and Industry and Trade, the provinces of Binh Dinh, Nghe An,Quang Ninh and Tay Ninh and the Vietnam National Chemical Group.Meanwhile, 84 businesses reported making no progress at all.

In the first seven months, SOES divested 2.975 trillion VND (140million USD), showing a threefold rise from 2013. The process remainsslow in comparison with the set plan.-VNA