The government will continue selling its holdings in state-owned enterprises this year, but the timing of the divestments will be carefully determined, a Ministry of Finance official said.

Privatizing state-run companies is the master plan Vietnam has been pushing in recent years.

This year, the list of enterprises slated for the transition includes the Power Generator Corporation 3, a subsidiary of Vietnam Electricity (EVN), and mobile operator MobiFone.

The government has also announced plans to sell its holdings in Vinamilk, Vietnam’s largest dairy producer, and Sabeco, the country’s beer and beverage giant, but no official time frame has been set.

“As Vinamilk is very attractive to foreign investors, the time to sell the state’s holdings should be carefully determined,” Dang Quyet Tien, deputy head of the corporate finance agency under the finance ministry, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Wednesday.

According to Tien, Vinamilk and other high-quality Vietnamese enterprises are ultra-attractive to foreign investors and there will certainly be a rush to acquire a stake once they are open for public investment, “so we have to choose a prime time so that the market will not get heated.”

After announcing last month that it will remove the 49 percent foreign ownership cap in the near future, Vinamilk, valued at US$7.85 billion, is expected to receive a flood of interest from overseas investors.

While the sale of state holdings at Vinamilk should not be hurried, Tien said that divestment from Sabeco should be done as soon as possible, “otherwise the beer maker will miss a chance for growth.”

The government currently owns as much as 89.59 percent of the Ho Chi Minh City-based company, and has plans to reduce the stake to 36 percent.

The divestment, however, has been delayed many times, with the government reportedly unwilling to sell its stake for fear of losing interest in such a profitable company.

Addressing a government plan to reduce stakes in major lenders such as BIDV, Vietinbank, and Vietcombank to 51 percent, Tien said those deals will not come in the immediate future.

“The state may continue keeping its stake of more than 51 percent in these lenders, as Vietnam’s economy remains weak and the capital market is not strong enough,” he elaborated.

Tien admitted, however, that banking is not among sectors the government has to hold a 100 percent stake.

“The state holdings at these banks must therefore be reduced by 2020,” he said.

Asked if money generated from selling the state holdings will be used to repay national debts, the official said it would be the last-resort solution.

“A family only has to sell all that it has to repay debts when it is in serious difficulty. The government has the same philosophy when it comes to state assets,” he said.

Tien asserted that the main goal of divestment from state-owned companies is for “investment in the nation’s development, not debt payment.”