This year, besides restoring his popularity by standing up to China in a territorial dispute, Mr Dung has breathed new life into a long-standing plan to sell minority stakes in SOEs to private investors, in the hope of making them more businesslike. Ones with IPOs planned for next year include Vietnam National Shipping Lines—two of whose former executives were sentenced to death last year in a drive against corruption. Given the condition many are in, Mr Dung’s goal of equitising more than 400 firms by late 2015 is optimistic.
Edmund Malesky, a Vietnam-watcher at Duke University in the United States, reckons the government in Hanoi may be pushing forward the equitisations with an eye on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a big trade deal now being negotiated, which would oblige member countries to cut subsidies. If floating SOEs made them more efficient, they would need fewer handouts. It would then be easier for Vietnam to sign up to an eventual TPP deal, enabling it to enjoy wider market access for its exports.
The strategy makes sense, but it may be hard to pull off. Vietnam’s stockmarket remains one of Asia’s smallest, and foreign investors are reluctant to buy shares in firms the state will continue to control, especially those in such areas as energy and transport that it regards as strategic, meaning prone to meddling.