National Assembly urges Government to make greater efforts in restructuring

Deputy Nguyen Thi Kha from Tra Vinh province

According to a report by the NA Standing Committee, economic restructuring in the last three years has brought about certain results but the reforms are still slower than expected.

The report notes that a new growth model has yet to be formed, restructuring policies are not effective enough while the Government has not made a comprehensive assessment of the economy and there is still a lack of co-ordination between relevant parties in the restructuring process.

Deputy Nguyen Thi Kha from Tra Vinh province said State-owned enterprise restructuring had not seen major breakthroughs as divestment fell short of expectations and the potential strengths of the private sector had not been fully utilised.

Those drawbacks came as enterprises’ leaders were not bold enough in their action, added Kha, requesting the Government to eliminate negative influences of interest groups and hold State-owned enterprises accountable.

Regarding the banking system, the NA Standing Committee stated that the rapid rise in the number of commercial banks in recent years has caused instability as it did not come together with enhanced governance.

Deputy Trinh Ngoc Phuong from Tay Ninh province said that resolving bad debts in the banking system required sorting out the tangle of cross ownership and cross investment.

Public investment also came under the spotlight as many deputies stated that the sector was plagued with problems such as over-diversification, inefficiency and inadequate supervision over construction.

Deputies Nguyen Van Hien from Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Do Manh Hung from Thai Nguyen said that given limited capital, the Government should conduct a review of public investment projects and organise them in priorities.

They added that at the same time, the Government needed to intensify the anti-corruption effort and further reform administrative procedures, among others to enhance the efficiency of public investment projects.

NDO