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The launch of the 2020 PAPI report in Hanoi on April 14 (Photo: baotainguyenmoitruong.vn)

Hanoi (VNA) – The control of corruption in the public sector last year showed the best performance in a decade, since the Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) survey was first conducted.

The 2020 PAPI report, released on April 14, indicated that in 2020, the percentages of respondents seeing bribes as necessary for jobs in state agencies, health-care services at district-level public hospitals, land use right certificates, fair treatment by primary school teachers, and the granting of construction permits continued declining since 2016, the first year of the 2016-2021 government term.

As many as 18 provinces and cities made significant progress in the control of corruption in the public sector last year compared to 2019. Out of the 16 best performers, seven are from the south, four from the central region, and three from the north. As in previous years, Ben Tre performed well overall in this dimension. Six provinces experienced significant setbacks in 2020, with Ninh Thuan and Ninh Binh had the largest declines.

Nine out of the top 10 performers in controlling corrupt behaviours in local administrations and public services are central and southern provinces. Quang Ninh, Dong Thap, Ben Tre, Quang Tri, and Quang Nam are the top five performers in this indicator.

Compared to the 2016 findings, personal relationships have become less important in all provinces and cities, implying that local administrations may have paid greater attention to a fair recruitment of state employees. However, personal relationships remain very important for five public office positions at the commune level, even among the top performers.

The control of corruption in the public sector is one of the eight dimensions in the PAPI survey. The others are the participation at local levels, transparency in local decision making, vertical accountability towards citizens, public administrative procedures, public service delivery, environmental governance, and e-governance.

PAPI is a flagship governance programme initiated by the UN Development Programmes in Vietnam since 2009. It measures and benchmarks citizens’ experiences and perception on the performance and quality of policy implementation and services delivery of all 63 provincial administrations in Vietnam to advocate for effective and responsive governance.

Over 14,700 citizens were interviewed for the 2020 PAPI Report. This is the largest number of citizens to participate since the survey was first conducted nationwide in 2011. For the first time, the survey also gathered responses from citizens with temporary residence registration status. Nearly 300 migrants were surveyed in six provinces and centrally governed municipalities (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bac Ninh, Da Nang, Dong Nai, and Binh Duong)./.

SOEs must complete the sale of shares within four months, photo Le Toan

State-owned lender Agribank has been stuck for years with divestment efforts because its real estate assets could not be approved by the Ministry of Finance due to their large size and complex procedures.

“At the end of last year, the Ministry of Finance also made a comprehensive assessment on the equitisation goal of state-owned enterprises. Specifically, only about 28 per cent of enterprises were equitised, which means that nearly three-quarters did not meet the plan. The main issue is that many large corporations’ land use rights remain unclear, as can be seen in the cases of VNPT and Agribank,” explained Chu Manh Hung, deputy head of the Equitisation Department at Agribank.

“Since the equitisation plan during 2016-2020 has not been completed yet, Agribank will continue carrying out this task for the 2021-2025 period,” he added. “However, there are still major roadblocks hampering the process, associated with determining the value of land and affiliated enterprises.”

While Agribank has been constantly pushing the equitisation process, the complex valuation procedures have been a major obstacle slowing down progress. The bank also has to cope with the myriad challenges arising from its large number of affiliated enterprises, multi-level authorisations required, as well as delayed approval of land use schemes.

Agribank has a total of around 294 real estate properties with a total area of 2.6 million square metres, with diverse origins and incomplete legal documents. While these assets can help the bank’s equitisation value reach record levels and enhance its efficiency, they have also delayed divestment for years.

“Agribank currently has more than 100 land plots with unclear legal status. We hope to receive support from relevant units and agencies to quickly equitise this large volume of assets,” Hung told VIR.

Despite its ongoing equitisation, Agribank jumped 17 spots to rank 173rd in the recently-announced Brand Finance Banking 500 list for 2021, which featured the most valuable and strongest banking brands in the world.

As of December 31, Agribank’s total assets reached nearly VND1.57 quadrillion ($68.26 billion), with its capital exceeding VND1.45 quadrillion ($63 billion). According to Brand Finance, as governments scramble to stimulate economic growth in the face of the ongoing global health crisis, and profits and interest rates taking a hit, nearly two-thirds of the world’s 500 most valuable banking brands have recorded brand value losses.

As per Decree No.01/2014/ND-CP released in 2014 on foreign investors’ purchase of shares of Vietnamese credit institutions, a foreign strategic investor shall not hold more than 20 per cent of the charter capital of a Vietnamese credit institution. Foreign investors shall not hold more than 30 per cent of the charter capital of a Vietnamese commercial bank.

Besides Agribank, other local lenders have been enjoying the attentions of foreign partners looking to increase their footprint in Vietnam.

In 2019, a strategic co-operation between Vietnamese bank BIDV and South Korean KEB Hana Bank turned the former into the lender with the largest market capitalisation in Vietnam with around $1.73 billion. KEB Hana invested capital in exchange for a 15 per cent stake in BIDV, while BIDV received long-term technical assistance from the South Korean lender and its parent company, Hana Financial Group. The tie-up also quenched the bank’s thirst for capital as BIDV announced it has now satisfied Basel II requirements.

Elsewhere, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC in 2019 purchased over 94 million new shares and now owns a 2.55 per cent stake in Vietcombank. Mizuho, one of the largest Japanese financial services providers purchased an additional 16.6 million new shares to maintain its existing 15 per cent stake in the bank.

“The equity investment by GIC and Mizuho increases Vietcombank’s charter capital and creates a solid capital buffer for the bank to meet capital requirements under Basel II Accord as well as maintain its leading position in the Vietnamese banking sector,” a GIC representative stated.

Last year, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group reduced its stake in VietinBank by 1.5 per cent, following an earlier divestment.

The IFC and equity subsidiary IFC Capitalization Fund also reduced their combined ownership in VietinBank from almost 6.49 to 4.99 per cent last year, leaving more room for other foreigners.

Besides the IFC, Japanese financial institution Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ holds 19.73 per cent in the state-run bank. However, VietinBank has not signalled any new potential partnerships since IFC pulled out.

On the other hand, under Vietnamese regulations, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) must complete the sale of shares within four months of having their equitisation plans approved. This time limit may not be enough for overseas investors to conduct due diligence and negotiate representations and warranties, special rights, and other conditions for share acquisitions with the authority representing state capital in the SOE, according to ASCV Legal.

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Hai Phong (VNA) – The northern port city of Hai Phong targets 1.5 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the second quarter of 2021, according to head of the Management Board of Hai Phong Economic Zones Le Trung Kien.

Kien said that the city will increase dialogues to explore obstacles facing businesses, while enhancing efficiency of investment promotion activities, while prioritising investors with high capacity and advanced, environmentally-friendly technologies .

Along with speeding up administrative reforms, the board will coordinate closely with the local police force to ensure order and security in economic zones and industrial parks, creating a safe environment for enterprises, Kien said.

He said Hai Phong currently has 12 industrial parks. As of March 31, 2021, the local industrial parks and economic zones had lured 406 FDI projects worth 17.15 billion USD.

The average occupancy rate in the local industrial park has reached 62.5 percent. There are 154,100 labourers working in Hai Phong’s industrial parks and economic zones.

In the 2021-2025 period, Hai Phong plans to construct 15 new industrial parks with a total area of over 6,200 hectares.

Last year, the city ranked seventh out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide in the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), and second out of 11 provinces and cities in the Red River Delta region./.