HÀ NỘI — Issued early this year as Việt Nam enters what leaders describe as a new era of the nation's rise, a Politburo resolution on developing the State economic sector is redefining the role of State-owned enterprises (SOEs), positioning them as trailblazers and growth engines tasked with opening up new paths for the economy rather than relying on administrative protection or preferential treatment.

Instead of expanding subsidies or increasing State ownership, Resolution 79-NQ/TW, signed on January 6, 2026, by Party General Secretary Tô Lâm, focuses on redesigning mandates, mechanisms and expectations so that SOEs can more effectively mobilise national resources, promote technological innovation, and generate spillover effects that enable the private sector and other economic players to grow alongside them.

The overarching goal is to create breakthrough momentum for the economy while ensuring stability and strategic autonomy.

According to Associate Professor Dr Nguyễn Thường Lạng, an economist and senior lecturer at the National Economics University’s School of Trade and International Economics, Resolution 79 signals a shift from a rigid administrative mindset towards a development-oriented approach, granting leading SOEs greater autonomy to spearhead growth while subjecting them to strict international governance standards.

The leading role of the State-owned economy has long been a constitutional principle and a consistent pillar throughout Việt Nam’s development history, from the centrally planned and subsidy period to the current system of State economic groups. The sector has served as a backbone in fulfilling political tasks, ensuring national defence and security, and safeguarding employment and social welfare.

“What distinguishes Resolution 79 is the clear redefinition of the mission of the State economic sector under new conditions,” Lạng said.

 

Blazing a trail

Beyond reaffirming their leading role, SOEs are assigned a pioneering and path-clearing function. They are expected to drive innovation, lead market development and set benchmarks for other sectors. Rather than merely preserving capital or operating in low-risk areas, they must enhance competitiveness, integrate advanced technologies and modern governance practices, and represent the credibility of the Vietnamese economy on the international stage.

To achieve the double-digit growth target in the next few years, properly recognising the role of SOEs is essential, policymakers say.

According to Phan Đức Hiếu, permanent member of the National Assembly’s Committee for Economic and Financial Affairs, SOEs, private enterprises and other economic sectors form an ecosystem of economic actors, with SOEs identified as an important material production force.

He told Người Đưa Tin (The Messenger) newspaper that an independent, self-reliant and resilient economy must have an interweaving and mutual support of many actors, adding that a material production pillar that plays a stabilising and guiding role is not optional.

Resolution 79 clarifies that the State economy exists in different forms, notably SOEs and public service units. For SOEs, development will focus on concentrating scale while improving quality, with emphasis on key strategic sectors such as energy, chemicals, strategic minerals and logistics – areas considered essential to economic security and competitiveness.

With advantages in accessing budget capital, land and natural resources, SOEs are expected to use these national resources to create spillover effects, attracting other economic sectors to participate in value chains and contribute to overall growth.

“When backed by such resources, State economic activities must generate momentum and draw in other sectors,” Hiếu said.

At the same time, the resolution makes clear that the State does not need to maintain dominant ownership in every enterprise.

A group of SOEs operating outside strategic areas will undergo strong restructuring. Measures may include merging suitable enterprises to form larger and more focused groups, equitisation or even full divestment, where the State does not need to retain controlling stakes. Some enterprises may be transferred to the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), a state-owned investment holding company, or assigned to local authorities.

However, Hiếu stressed that this process must follow an appropriate roadmap.

“It is not about doing it quickly, but doing it correctly, in line with the right timeline and the objective of optimising resources,” he said.

Transforming the SCIC

A notable point in Resolution 79 is the comprehensive restructuring of the SCIC towards more professional capital management and the goal of forming a national investment fund.

SCIC is now one of the largest institutional investors in Việt Nam by assets under management. It has held stakes in major Vietnamese companies such as Vinamilk, FPT, Bao Minh Insurance and numerous listed and unlisted SOEs.

According to Hiếu, such a model would enable more proactive, market-based and leading use of State capital. It evokes experiences in countries like Singapore and Indonesia, where the State plays a pioneering and spillover role in new sectors and technologies and even invests abroad to accumulate capacity. 

Unlike traditional administrative management, the fund model operates on market principles and emphasises agility and efficiency.

Resolution 79 also underscores that the development of SOEs should not rely on privileges.

The spirit of the resolution is clear: SOEs must follow market principles, avoid monopoly positions and compete in parallel with other sectors. The relationship between the State and private investors should be cooperative and complementary, making use of the flexibility, dynamism and resources of the private sector rather than creating a one-player market.

“The core is for SOEs to understand that there are no subsidies, no monopolies and no special treatment, but development based on governance standards and a transparent, equal competitive environment,” he said. “Both theory and practice show that only competition improves capacity, efficiency and creativity.”

From a macroeconomic perspective, Deputy Minister of Finance Cao Anh Tuấn said the role of SOEs should not be viewed solely through their direct contributions to the State budget.

More broadly, they act as important material tools that help the State stabilise major economic balances, guide and regulate development, and address shortcomings of the market mechanism, according to Tuấn.

In many cases, the overall socio-economic efficiency generated by SOEs cannot be measured simply by short-term budget revenue. Their direct fiscal contributions should thus not be compared mechanically with those of private or foreign-invested sectors.

Recently, the SOE sector has been streamlined and focused on new or important areas such as energy, national infrastructure, finance, telecommunications, semiconductors and core technologies, while the development space for the private sector has continued to expand, becoming a key driver of growth, job creation and budget revenue.

“The declining proportion of revenue from SOEs while total revenue still increases shows that the economy is operating more efficiently and resources are being allocated more rationally,” Tuấn said, describing this as consistent with the goal of building a socialist-oriented market economy.

Reorganising SOEs

The Ministry of Finance will continue working with ministries, sectors and localities to reorganise SOEs, retain those in essential and strategic fields, and strengthen financial transparency, efficiency and governance in line with international standards, while making better use of dividends, profits and proceeds from equitisation.

For Nguyễn Sĩ Dũng, former vice chairman of the National Assembly Office, whether Resolution 79 produces real breakthroughs depends largely on implementation capacity.

The decisive issue is not only thoroughly understanding the policy, but transforming its orientations into concrete governance and operational capabilities.

In other words, the quality of execution depends on improving State economic management across the entire chain – from setting objectives and allocating resources to organising implementation, supervision and evaluation.

Resolution 79 offers not just new requirements for the State economy, but also a strategic opportunity to upgrade national governance capacity.

“When governance improves, the State economy will no longer be measured by its formal role or the scale of resources, but by its ability to lead, create and build trust for the entire economy,” Dũng said.

Implementing the resolution is therefore not merely an economic task, but a process of renewing governance thinking, resource allocation methods and accountability standards.

Only then can each use of public resources create greater added value and each policy generate stronger spillover effects, laying the foundation for the breakthrough growth that Resolution 79 envisions. — VNS