The number 79 Resolution sets ambitious goals: by 2030, fifty state-owned enterprises should be among the 500 largest in Southeast Asia, with one to three in the global Top 500. A major challenge awaits them starting now.
Resolution No. 79: “boost” for state-owned businesses in Ho Chi Minh City
Making the state economy a driver of innovation
The state banks on its giants
On January 6, 2026, Party General Secretary Trong signed the promulgation of Resolution No. 79 of the Politburo on the development of the state economy. By 2030, the goal is for around fifty state-owned companies to be among the 500 largest in Southeast Asia, with one to three making it to the global top 500. The aim is to build powerful state-owned conglomerates with advanced technologies and international competitiveness, capable of driving and leading domestic players in global production and supply chains.
This high ambition requires significant efforts from the state and its enterprises. However, to achieve this goal, it is crucial to first accurately identify strategic sectors and priority players.
The selected sectors must be true economic arteries, strategically important for growth, ensuring national security and economic stability while being in areas where the private sector does not wish to engage or lacks sufficient capacity to intervene effectively. In these sectors, state-owned enterprises are tasked with leading, establishing initial foundations, and guiding the industrial chain, thus contributing to the development of competitive fundamental industries.
Vietnamese companies aiming to enter the rankings of the largest in Southeast Asia and the world must operate in selected sectors, demonstrate critical size and proven efficiency, but most importantly, must master essential technologies for their expansion. They need to guide their sector, control the value chain, and, above all, act as a catalyst: an investment capital capable of stimulating and mobilizing all corporate resources.
Once the strategic sectors and pivotal state-owned enterprises are identified for potential integration into the regional and international rankings, it becomes necessary for the competent authorities and relevant companies to adapt their governance approach, capital deployment, and growth vision in line with national target requirements.
Urgently finalizing the institutional framework
There are less than five years left to achieve the goal of getting 50 state-owned enterprises into the top 500 largest in Southeast Asia and one to three in the global Top 500. This timeframe is short, even pressing, to achieve this ambition. The institutional framework must create extremely favorable conditions for these entities to have real competitiveness.
The state must perfect its institutional framework so that state-owned enterprises dare to think big, act, innovate, and take on their responsibilities. Trust must be given to pillar structures, true cornerstones of strategic sectors, entrusting them with major missions. Only with adequate resources can they accelerate, take on a significant volume of tasks, and assert themselves internationally.
What matters now is to quickly implement, from this year, the missions and measures provided for in Resolution No. 79. This requires the involvement of ministries and relevant sectors, the active role of the National Assembly in revising laws, and government action to dictate the necessary mechanisms and policies. The goal is clear: for the Resolution not to remain a theoretical guideline but to result in resolute and determined actions.
State-owned enterprises, growth engines
The goal of having Vietnamese state-owned enterprises among the 500 largest in Southeast Asia and the world is ambitious but achievable. It is important to understand that this direction aims not only for a ranking but also to create pressure for reforms, innovation, and resource concentration to build several powerful state-owned conglomerates with regional and international competitiveness. Governance quality, capital efficiency, innovation capacity, and global integration readiness are crucial. When Resolution No. 79 is institutionalized and rigorously applied, especially through adopting OECD administrative standards, this ambition can be fully achieved.
The period 2026-2030 includes several major objectives to accomplish: average annual growth in double digits, achieving the status of a high-income developing country with a modern industry and upper-middle income, as well as realizing key solutions such as No. 57 (science and digitalization), No. 59 (international integration), No. 66 (institutional reform), No. 68 (private sector), and No.79 (public sector and state enterprises), among others.
This stage is the foundation for achieving the aspiration of becoming a high-income country by 2045. If the preparatory phase fails to make a decisive breakthrough, higher ambitions may be at risk, leading to continuous goal postponement from one period to another. Hence, the need for strong political will, bold and entrepreneurial spirit, development of suitable institutions and policies, as well as unity and determination throughout the entire political system and enterprises to strengthen Vietnam’s economic autonomy and assert itself in this new era.
Source/Credit: La Résolution N°79: A major step forward for state-owned enterprises by Thanh Nien News
