Reforming State-Owned Enterprises in a Global Economy: The Case of Vietnam

Abstract

What does the new phase of SOE reforms starting around 2016 tell us about economic and institutional transformations and contradictions in Vietnam? In raising this question, we shed light on contradictions between the Vietnamese socialist ideology and the market imperative and international pressure the Vietnamese economy is subject to as a global player. In the wake of the doi moi process for economic renewal, the need of reforming the SOE sector attained a lot of attention. The Government decided to promote equitization of SOEs in 1992. This means that the enterprises should be turned into joint stock companies in which the state, workers and private investors hold shares, and that either the state or the private investors hold the majority shares. However, the process went slowly. There were considerable resistance from managers and a fear of job losses. What then characterizes the new phase of SOE reforms? What is new about the context that the reforms are implemented in? After a brief account of previous SOE reforms we delve into how the state and industry plan for, perceive and experience the new phase of reforms and how the reforms are addressed by international institutions and mass media.