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There are not corrupt SOEs, only corrupt businessmen
The State’s policies do not corrupt state owned enterprises (SOEs) or badly affect private enterprises. But it is the corrupt people who take unfair advantage of the loopholes in the legal framework to commit wrongdoings, said Thai Tuan Chi, Chair and General Director of Thai Tuan Group.
Chi, in the interview given to VietNamNet, said he would like to offer many suggestions to the Draft Strategy on Socio-economic development in 2011-2020.
As a businessman, what in the draft strategy on socio-economic development for the period from 2011 to 2020 are you most interested in?
I have read the draft documents for the upcoming 11th Communist Party Congress. I can see that many problems have been mentioned for a long time, but we have not gone far in the path to settle them.
Therefore, the next 10-year development strategy needs to focus on creating a breakthrough in the issues which can have big impacts on the national economy.
We are facing the high trade deficit, which hit eight percent of GDP, the continued budget deficit and high sovereign debts.
Besides, the economic efficiency is still low with the ICOR (Incremental capital-output ratio) reaching 8. The productivity is still low, while a high percentage of exports are raw materials, which means that the added values of the products are small. Support for industries remains weak, while the infrastructure is still poor, and the electricity output is still far from meeting the demand for production and household use.
Vietnam’s labour force is considered profuse, but it still cannot modernise and industrlise, which is a problem especially since we are trying to build a knowledge-based economy and trying to attract foreign investments into high-technology fields.
The above problems need to be solved, while the national economy needs to be restructured in the way which allows to fully exploit Vietnam’s potentials, create more added value and improve the competitiveness of Vietnam-made products.
Another thing that we need to do is to develop more national brands that can be recognised both at home and internationally. As for the brands of products for export, the motto should be “Vietnamese products, international quality”
In the draft strategy, the State economic sector will continue acting as the “nucleus” of the national economy. What do you think about that?
I think that the state’s viewpoint of keeping the decisive role of the state economic sector in the national economy is not a wrong choice. However, it is regrettable that the state economic sector still cannot fulfill its role as expected by the state.
I think State owned enterprises (SOEs) should play the key role in most important economic fields, while they should not lead the whole national economy, because this is an impossible mission.
It is necessary to speed up the SOE equitisation process. The state should keep higher proportions of stakes in the SOEs operating in important economic fields than in the enterprises in other fields.
To date, many businessmen still consider the state’s assets as ownerless or as the free public bottle of milk from which everybody can drink . The problem is that the State is still lacking an effective mechanism which would allow inspecting and supervising the use of state’s capital and assets
The role of the private economic sector in the national economy has become clearer recently. What suggestions would you, as a businessman, make to the draft strategy in order to help the private economic sector to develop more strongly and make greater contribution to the development of the country?
The first thing I wish to see is that the Communist Party and the State follow the ideas and guidelines mentioned in the draft strategy that it is necessary to respect the freedom in doing business and ensure the equality among different economic sectors. It is also necessary to diversify the types of ownership, economic sectors, types of businesses, protect legal rights and interests of owners, and the assets of different kinds of ownership.
We also should make larger investment to develop supporting industries in order to gradually increase the locally made content ratio in products and help reduce the trade deficit.
Especially, we need to pour money into infrastructure and develop energy sources. We are seriously lacking electricity, even in the rainy season.
Some experts think that the current policies can “spoil” SOEs and private businesses, because the policies cannot encourage businesses to do business in a true way – competing healthily and honestly. What do you think about the opinion?
I think that the state’s policies do not create corrupt businesses. But there are corrupt people, who take unfair advantage of the state’s policies to commit wrongdoings.
Cao Nhat
vietnamnet
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