State-owned groups: the past and present    In late afternoon on August 4--of over two years ago, along with the coil of the public on the arrest of the Chair of the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin)--was the regular press conference of the government, a special conference because it was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung. Vinalines could not lift Vinashin but it also "sank". It was also a thematic session on Vinashin, through which the Government gave a strong message of the determination to "salvage" this giant ship. The Chair of the Vietnam Shipping Lines Group (Vinalines), Duong Chi Dung, was also present at the press conference. On the sidelines of the meeting, Dung was enthusiastically surrounded by correspondents, asking him about Vinalines’ mission of “rescuing” Vinashin. With emotion and exhilaration, Dung’s answers were full of chivalrous spirit, such as: "We are very excited because this is not the mission that is meaningful in terms of economic relations between Vinashin and Vinalines, but it also brings about significant social, economic, political meanings." At the same time, he passionately outlined the perspective of both Vinashin and Vinalines ships to soon act freely in the ocean together. This “dream" broke miserably just over a year later. Vinalines could not lift Vinashin but it also "sank," leaving the earth a lot of controversy about whether it sank because of performing the “rescue mission” or because of the permanent weaknesses in State-owned economic groups. Vinalines, Vinashin are just one or two examples of the long slide of the reputation of state economic groups and along with this, the glorious age of this block has become a thing of the past. From bright to gloomy As usual for the past few years, at the year end the Prime Minister meets with leaders of state-owned corporations and groups. This year such a meeting was held, too. From a high platform of the hall, the head of the Government could always fully see the faces who piloted the economy together with the Government in the past year. There were no more the faces of Pham Thanh Binh, Duong Chi Dung, Dao Van Hung… who was sentenced, who was just arrested and who was subject to disciplinary action... While it was just not long ago, they were all bright faces and the “red” seeds who shouldered great responsibility in economic development, implementation of public and political tasks, etc. The Prime Minister said he was heartbroken, of course, not because of the absence of the people who used to be "red seeds" and the Government's little pets, but because "causing losses like that anyone would feel unhappy." At the Government’s meeting with state economic group in December 2011,  just over a year ago, Chairman of the Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN), Dao Van Hung, contributed a speech filled with so much enthusiasm and passion. The presentation reviewed the process of development of EVN, with a series of comments like "EVN has well promoted its strength to continue to be the leading economic group of the country, ensures the power supply for the national economy, acts as a "midwife" for the formation and development of the electricity market in Vietnam " and "in the period when the economy has been adjusted remarkably in accordance with unpredictable changes of the global economy, EVN still successful completes economic, political and social indicators, assigned by the Party and the Government ... Mr. Hung also made promises with beautiful words: "The socialist-oriented market economy still needs adjustment and guidance from the Party and the State. EVN and other state corporations strongly commit to continue to be effective economic tools to successfully implement the goals of industrialization and modernization of the country ... " More than a month after this speech, on 1/2/2012, the Prime Minister signed a decision on Dao Van Hung’s resignation from the EVN Chairmanship to work at the Ministry of Industry and Trade. On 28/12/2012, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung signed two other decisions announcing disciplinary action. Then Dao Van Hung, who was only a former Chair of EVN, had to serve a warning. Another senior official of EVN, General Director Pham Le Thanh, was reprimanded. The cause of discipline was related to EVN Telecom’s great losses. On a "winner" In September 2012, the first time a publication that has destructive power equivalent to the size of a "bomb" striking at the weakness of state-own businesses, at the same time portraying specifically and most vividly the group interest in this block was published widely. The agency that is responsible for this publication is the National Assembly's Economic Committee. Returning to the past three years, that it was the National Assembly's Economic Committee and the state-owned groups had a lot of "grace" together. In 2009, the National Assembly’s Economic Committee submitted to the fourth session of the National Assembly a report on monitoring state owned groups and corporations. At the completion of this monitoring report, before submitting it to the National Assembly, the NA’s Economic Committee presented it to the meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee for comments. At that time, the document was issued to the media, but then it was immediately recovered, because of the fear of being "too sensitive." And although at that time, such a monitoring report could also be seen as par as a "blockbuster" in the state-owned economic groups, and the NA already issued a resolution monitoring of the improvement of the effectiveness and efficiency of policy implementation, administration law, the use of capital assets in state enterprises, requiring the Government to make a series of moves to tighten operations of this sector. But in the end, both the monitoring report and resolution only stopped at “discussion” level at in the NA, and then stopped. Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Committee, Mai Xuan Hung said that “the government did not implement this resolution strongly.” For example, the resolution of the National Assembly asked the government to perform comprehensive restructure on corporate governance, the use of capital, state property, equitization of state-owned enterprises to improve the business performance of these enterprise, but so far these tasks have not done much. It is considered as that the NA’s Economic Committee failed that time. But with the publication of "From the macroeconomic instability to the restructuring path" that the NA’s Economic Commission sent to the National Assembly deputies before the 4th session, although the legal value is not as high as the monitoring report of three years ago, but it has very large spread. The report has launched a series of very strong comments, such as: Vietnam focused a lot of resources to build economic groups to turn them into "steel fist" and “the tool to stabilize macroeconomics" but the use of state-owned groups and corporations to offset losses and stabilize prices is too expensive, inefficient and is divided in the "group interest.” The report also stressed: the viewpoint “the state economic sector is the mainstream" is being taken full advantage by interest groups for the benefits of a number of individuals involved. This is a fertile piece of land to create the relationship around state groups and corporations." Then, in the fourth session of the NA last October, when commenting on the draft amendments to the Constitution 1992, many deputies said that it is unable to continue considering the state economic sector as the mainstream, as this force has not fulfilled the task of driving the economy. After numerous considerations, the compilation committee of the draft amendment to the Constitution 1992 decided to give up the concept of "the state economic sector is the mainstream" in the draft amendment which has been published for the people's comment. TBKTVN Translated by Tran Cham