Finance ministry seeks to raise state debt trader's capital A file photo of a ship belonging to state-owned shipping giant Vinalines, which had piled up debts worth VND12.3 trillion (US$564.2 million) as of 2013. Last year some of its creditors sold its debts to the Vietnam Debt and Asset Trading Corporation. The Vietnam Debt and Asset Trading Corporation, a government company that handles the debts of state-owned enterprises, is seeking to increase its registered capital to VND6 trillion (US$271.42 million), the second hike since its establishment in 2004. The Ministry of Finance has put up the proposal for public opinion before it is submitted to the government for approval, news website VnExpress reported Monday. In December the government allowed the company to hike its capital by nearly 125 percent to around VND5.58 trillion ($252.38 million), with most of the additional capital coming from a government fund for assisting SOEs. The proposal also seeks permission for the company to buy foreign debts, bills of exchange, and bonds. Reports from the company show that it bought about VND1.4 trillion ($63.33 million) worth of debts in the first half of this year, 2.87 times the figure for the same period last year. As of the end of 2013, 796 businesses solely owned by the government had debts of over VND1,514 trillion ($70.9 billion), according to the finance ministry. The average debt to equity ratio was 1.45 but 41 companies had a ratio higher than 3.0, it said. Thanh Nien News