Many SOEs recover from pandemic’s impacts: Ministry

In a recent report on the investment, management, and use of state capital at enterprises in 2021 sent to the National Assembly, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc said there were 826 businesses invested with state capital as of December 31 last year, including 673 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and 153 firms with capital partly contributed by the state. Their total assets are worth over 3.7 quadrillion VND (153.2 billion USD), up 2% from 2020.

Their total revenue surpassed 2.1 quadrillion VND, up 8% year on year.

Meanwhile, consolidated reports by groups, corporations, and parent - subsidiary companies pointed out that these enterprises’ revenue topped 1.5 quadrillion VND last year, up 9%.

The firms posting high revenue are mainly large-scale ones. The best performers are Vietnam Electricity – EVN (over 440 trillion VND), Vietnam Oil and Gas Group – Petrovietnam (over 380 trillion VND), Military Industry and Telecoms Group – Viettel (nearly 150 trillion VND), Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group – Vinacomin (over 114 trillion VND), and Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group – VNPT (over 54.67 trillion VND), statistics showed.

The report noted that in 2021, some parent companies recorded revenue increases of more than 30% compared to the previous year, including Vietnam National Chemical Group (156%), Company of Economic Cooperation (87%), Technological Application and Production One Member Limited Liability Company (77%), Vietnam Expressway Corporation (66%), and Petrovietnam (41%).

Consolidated reports by groups, corporations, and parent - subsidiary companies also showed that their pre-tax profits approximated 157 trillion VND, up 33% from 2020. Most of the ones with pre-tax profits of over 5 trillion VND were large companies, including Petrovietnam (nearly 52 trillion VND), Viettel (nearly 37 trillion VND), and EVN (nearly 18 trillion VND).

However, some businesses witnessed sharp declines in pre-tax profits such as Vietnam Paper Corporation (down 90%), Hanoi Transport Corporation (90%), and Housing and Urban Development Corporation (52%).

Phoc said some SOEs have yet to clearly exercise their roles in leading and promoting other economic sectors to grow or boost the connectivity of value added chains.

Besides, loss-making and poor-performing projects have yet to be handled thoroughly, thus affecting the restructuring of SOEs, the report added.