Hanoi (VNA) - Transparency iscritical to raise the efficiency of State-owned enterprises (SOEs), heard aseminar in Hanoi on September 19.

At the event on improving SOE's efficiency: information transparency, governance renovation held by the Government’s e-portal ahead of the meeting of thePrime Minister with SOEs to take place later this month, participants said despiteaccounting for less than 1 percent of the total number of businesses, SOEs areoperating in the country’s key fields and contributes 30 percent of the GDP. Theeconomic sector also generates jobs for labourers, thus ensuring socialwelfare.

However, the efficiency of SOEs is yet to match with their huge resources.

Dang Quyet Tien, Director of the Ministryof Finance’s Corporate Finance Department, said that many SOEs have stillfailed to improve governance and operation efficiency after being privatised.

An estimate by the Steering Committee forEnterprise Innovation and Development showed that 92 percent of SOEs wereequitised over the past two decades but only 10 percent of the State capitalwas replaced by private capital.

Economic expert Luu Bich Ho said thattransparency was a common problem for SOEs.

He said that transparency and goodgovernance were critical for SOEs in the condition of rapid internationalintegration and requirements for compliance with international rules.

SOEs need to change their thinking andworking styles to create healthy businesses for efficient and sustainabledevelopment, he underscored.

Phung Van Hung, permanent member of theNational Assembly’s Economic Committee, said that after equitisation, manyenterprises did not want to list on stock exchanges and did not want topublicise their operation results.

Hung said that it was necessary to push forthe listing of SOEs which had already been equitised.

Tien agreed, adding that when listed onstock exchanges, the supervision of investors would force SOEs to improvegovernance and transparency following market practice.

He pointed out that there were about 700SOEs which had been equitised but not listed. Of them, nearly 200 were planningto list and 300 were transforming into public companies while the listings ofthe rest were stagnant.

Public disclosure of information on financeand operation of SOEs is a top priority, Tien said, adding that improvedtransparency will help enterprises to raise capital at lower costs that bankingloans.

He said that foreign investors focused moreon governance efficiency rather than assets such as land in making investmentdecisions.

He said that only with transparentinformation, could solutions be found for these projects. -VNA