Nov. 30 – Vietnam’s National Assembly has approved a new resolution that would dissolve unprofitable state-owned firms and increase efficiency of the remaining ones during the last day of its month-long session.

The committee reported that 45 percent of its 91 state-owned groups in the country met low returns on equity of less than 10 percent while 25 percent had a ratio of under 5 percent. An estimated 23 groups had cumulative losses of VND2.79 trillion at the end of 2008 reports Thanh Nien News.

The assembly also said that state-owned firms must concentrate on their main business although they will be allowed to operate different business lines if they pass certain requirements.

At the end of 2008, state-owned groups provided VND21.16 trillion to fund non-core sectors like banking, insurance, real estate and stock market but most to be unsuccessful.

At the end of the session, the assembly approved seven bills on the elderly, medical treatment, telecommunications, radio frequencies, militia, education and natural resource taxes.