Vietnam's Construction Ministry has submitted to the government a plan on equitizing state-owned construction enterprises and forming major economic groups in late 2007, according to local newspaper Vietnam News on Monday.

Under the plan, the ministry will accelerate the equitization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under its management, and reorganization of big corporations to establish five major groups with specialties in such areas as heavy equipment, cement and construction materials, urban realty development, construction, and engineering in the fourth quarter of this year.

The five future groups with their cores being the Song Da Construction Corporation, the Vietnam Machine Installation Corporation, the Vietnam National Cement Corporation, the Vietnam Urban and Industrial Park Development and Investment Corporation, and the Hanoi Construction Corporation, will be fully equitized by 2010, said the report.

Vietnam has targeted equitization of 550 SOEs in various sectors, including some corporations, commercial banks, insurers and public utilities, this year.

By the end of August 2006, Vietnam restructured 4,447 SOEs, of which 3,060 were equitized.

Source: Xinhua