![handle is hein.journals/vemsjl2019 and id is 1 raw text is: sciendo
Vietnamese Journal of Legal Sciences, Vol 01, No 01, 2019, pp. 01-32 DOI: 10.2478/vjls-2020-0001 1
DIVESTMENT OF STATE-OWNED
ENTERPRISES AND COMPETITION IN OIL &
GAS SECTORS IN VIETNAM
HA T. NGUYEN
Email : theha2911@gmail.com
UMUT TURKSEN
Centre for Financial and Corporate Integrity, Coventry University, UK
Email: umut.turksen@coventry.ac.uk
Abstract
In its endeavour to attract foreign investment inflows and realise the diversity and
security ofits energy supply, Vietnam has set out short, medium and long term strategies
which have been articulated in a number of legal instruments. These developments
include the drive and acceleration of divestment and liberalisation of the energy market
and ensuring healthy competition therein. This article provides a critical analysis of
the current divestment of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Vietnam's oil and gas
sectors. In doing so, it also assesses current state of affairs against the key principles and
objectives of competition law. After providing a brief summary of the milestones in the
oil and gas sector, the article explains the equitisation in and privatization of SOEs
and critiques the implications of these practices against the benchmarks of competition
law provisions. After identifying the current problems and future challenges that lie
ahead, it provides a number of constructive recommendations for policy development
and legal reform.
Keywords: divestment, SOEs, competition, energy
1. Introduction
From the 1980s, onwards Vietnam pursued a central-subsidy economy
in which the government planned and directly intervened in the market
through state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and administrative decisions.
Accordingly, the Vietnamese economy was dominated by SOEs which
enjoyed enormous privileges but were largely inefficient. The few
competition rules that existed at the time in Vietnam were applied mainly
to a minority of small private enterprises. There was, obviously, no room for
the type of competition which is present in developed countries.1
The concept of market-based economy was addressed when the
Vietnam Communist Party decided to carry out its Renovation (Doi
1 OECD (2018), OECD Peer Reviews of Competition Law and Policy: Vietnam, p. 13, retrieved from
http://www.oecd.org/daf/competition/competition-law-and-policy-in-vietnam.htm [accessed
17 June 2019]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/vemsjl2019&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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