The giants readied for going public in the period will include Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), Vietnam Coal and Mineral Industry Group (Vinacomin), and Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN), said the Central Steering Committee for State-owned Enterprise Reform and Development.

At a review conference on the performance of State-owned enterprises in the past 10 years and projections for the next five years held in Hanoi on Thursday, the committee said the State would retain majority stakes in these giants, though. The State will own 65-75% of the above firms as well as eight other large groups and corporations, while holding non-majority stakes in the remaining 16 corporations.

By 2020, only 17 groups and corporations would remain under the State umbrella alongside some 200 monopolies operating in the fields of national defense, security and public service.

Meanwhile, certain State firms would be excluded from the equitization process, such as the military-run mobile service operator Viettel, the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) and the Vietnam Railway Corporation (VRC).

* Also at the review conference on Thursday, Tran Xuan Hoa, chairman of Vinacomin, continued to seek approval for hiking coal prices for the power industry.

Hoa complained the cheap coal supply for electricity generation had resulted in VND5 trillion in lost revenue for the State budget this year. Coal is now sold to power generators at about 60% of market prices, he said.

“According to our calculation, some 12 million tons of coal has been sold to the power industry this year, at a price of VND580,000 per ton while the production cost amounts to VND950,000 a ton,” Hoa noted.

In addition, the audit of the year’s first half showed that the gap between coal prices for electricity production and for export led to a loss of VND2.4 trillion for Vinacomin. Hoa revealed the export coal price was now VND2.4 million per ton.