On August 8, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Finance (Department of Corporate Finance) coordinated with the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to organize a seminar to collect opinions on the draft Law on Management and Investment of State Capital in Enterprises.

The seminar aims to listen to comments from credit institutions, state-owned enterprises and agencies of the State Bank of Vietnam that are performing state management and ownership functions.

Speaking at the seminar, Mr. Bui Tuan Minh, Director of the Department of Corporate Finance, Standing Member of the Drafting Committee, Head of the Draft Law Editorial Team, said that the State Bank is one of the owners with very large resources when the enterprises with state capital contributed by this agency are currently making many contributions and having a great impact on the economy. The enterprises under the State Bank system are also quite specialized in their own right.

Mr. Bui Tuan Minh said that this draft Law has added many new points, boldly moving in the direction of not managing corporate legal entities as before but defining the State as only a professional capital investor.

"The State exercises its rights to the extent of its capital in the enterprise. In addition, it clearly defines that the State invests capital through the agency representing the capital owner. In management, the State manages the investment capital, that is, manages the part of the agency representing the capital owner investing. When the State's money flows to a certain point, the State manages the investment activities, not the capital flow.

The main content includes 4 major groups of contents proposed in the draft Law for comments, including: Human resources; strategy, plan, capital structure plan; capital investment policy; owner's profit..." - Director of the Department of Enterprise Finance said.

Representative of the State Bank, Mr. Le Anh Xuan, Deputy Director of the Finance and Accounting Department, said that the State Bank was assigned to represent the owners at 12 enterprises and credit institutions.

Among the 12 units, there are 8 credit institutions, 1 financial institution, and 3 enterprises. The total charter capital of the 12 units managed by the State Bank is about 233 trillion VND (as of the end of 2023), the total equity is 470 trillion VND, and the total asset size is more than 8.5 million billion VND. With a very large scale, these 12 enterprises play an important role in the socio-economy.

Recently, based on the application of Law No. 69/2014/QH13 and related decrees, the State Bank has issued regulations on representative management and has also amended and supplemented these regulations many times.

After 10 years of implementing Law No. 69/2014/QH13, the State Audit Office has annually audited the State Bank, and the State Audit Office has recognized that the State Bank has properly and fully exercised its ownership rights. However, Mr. Le Anh Xuan also pointed out a number of difficulties and obstacles in the implementation of Law 69/2014/QH13.

Mr. Le Anh Xuan also suggested some key contents for representatives of 12 enterprises attending the discussion to give specific comments, in which he highly appreciated the content of the Development Investment Fund, considering this a bright spot when the Ministry of Finance's viewpoint is following the proposal to allow the Development Investment Fund to be allocated to enterprises from higher after-tax profits according to option 2, which is to allocate a maximum of 80% of after-tax profits. However, the issue also arises as to how to coordinate this development investment fund in the business community in a reasonable manner.

At the discussion session, delegates directly contributed comments on the contents of the draft Law such as: Applicable subjects; issues of state capital management invested in enterprises; setting up the Development Investment Fund at enterprises from after-tax profits; scope of state capital investment; investment activities of enterprises; arrangement and restructuring of state capital at enterprises, corporate governance; agencies and representatives of capital owners... thereby contributing to further perfecting the Law dossier.

Providing further information to clarify some contents of the draft Law, Mr. Bui Tuan Minh said that the draft Law clearly defines the principle that the State is only a capital investor in enterprises, does not directly intervene in the operation and management of enterprises, but is implemented through agencies and representatives of capital owners in enterprises to ensure the rights of capital investors and capital contributors to enterprises.

Regarding the concerns of delegates regarding the contents of corporate governance, Mr. Minh said that the draft Law does not stipulate the contents of corporate governance but only stipulates the rights and responsibilities of enterprises with state capital investment, so it does not affect the internal governance of the enterprise. Regarding the development investment fund to be kept in the enterprise from after-tax profits, it is necessary to affirm that this fund does not belong to the enterprise, this fund belongs to the owner. After-tax profits belong to the owner, not the enterprise, however, it is necessary to absorb and study the retention ratio, and use the fund to ensure efficiency.