Vietnam has planned to equitize more than 1,500 state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including commercial banks, by 2010, local newspaper Vietnam Agriculture reported Friday.

The country will also equitize some firms under ministries of National Defense and Public Security operating in the fields of textile and garment, construction, and trade, the paper quoted Deputy Director of Vietnam's Steering Committee for Enterprise Reform and Development Pham Viet Muon as saying.

Vietnam is offering shares to institutional investors to speed up equitization of large state corporations, and encouraging the equitized enterprises to list in the local stock market.

By 2010, the country is expected to have only 554 SOEs operating mainly in the fields of security, defense, essential service provision, and agro-forestry.

Vietnam has equitized over 3,000 SOEs since 1992, of them 66 percent have operated in the sectors of industry, construction and transport. Eighty-five percent of the SOEs have well performed after their equitization, according to the committee.

Source: Xinhua