Vietnam: Prime Minister urges to keep Saigon Beer brand name unchanged

The Prime Minister has assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade to keep Saigon Beer brand name unchanged, VietNamNet Bridge reported on December 26, citing a representative of the Business Finance Department under the Ministry of Finance.

Saigon Beer is the brand name of Saigon Alcohol Beer and Beverages Corporation (Sabeco) whose over 53 percent stake has recently been sold to Vietnam Beverage which belongs to ThaiBev Company.

At a press conference on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) equitization, divestment and restructuring in 2017, Mr. Dang Quyet Tien, head of the Business Finance Department, said that in many countries brand names were uneasy to lose.

The government does not need to hold capital for keeping brand names, but the importance was that those brand names must survive, he added.

Some opinions said that foreign investors might have deliberately dodged the Vietnam�s Investment Law to indirectly own over 50 percent of capital in the Sabeco auction.

In reply, Mr. Tien said that it should not distinguish domestic and overseas factors because some foreign companies had not directly invested in Vietnam but had enterprises established in the country, so they should be treated as Vietnamese firms.

Still he said it was necessary to amend some current laws to avoid the case in which foreign investors dodge Vietnam�s laws in the future.

As of December 20, authorized agencies have approved the equitization of 45 businesses with the total value of VND213,747 billion, sextuple the practical value of enterprises equitized in 2016.