Privatizing State-Owned Enterprises in Vietnam: Government Dilemmas

The government is pushing ahead with its privatization program. It has released a list of 137 state-owned enterprises that it would privatize, fully or partially, between 2016 and 2020. The list includes the Vietnam Posts & Telecommunications Group. [Asia Wall Street Journal, 10 January 2017]. However, academics Trien Vinh Le and Kris Hartley warn that privatization “raises the specter of populist blowback and political instability—both growing trends around the world.”