Economic and development policy/planning

In its integration commitments, Vietnam has to liberalize prices for essential products (eg. electricity, petrol). In these markets, however, the State-owned enterprises (SOEs) enjoy dominant shares and preferential policy treatments relative to private enterprises. Lifting price controls without promoting competition in these markets will make the dominant SOEs become price setters with escalating prices at the expense of consumers. Overall reforms of SOEs still progress slowly in Vietnam. Thus, enhancing competitive neutrality via reducing preferential treatment for SOEs emerges as an important complementary measure to support price liberalization for essential products. This one-year project aims to build capacity for enhancing `competitive neutrality` to support price liberalization for essential products. Key activities are: (i) studying major aspects of competition-impeding preferential treatments for SOEs; (ii) developing a policy note for policymakers and APEC; (iii) roundtable discussion at EC Plenary meeting; (iv) trainings for local agencies and officials to enhance `competitive neutrality`.

VietNam