Vietnam’s military, which is running many major enterprises in different fields, may withdraw from all economic activities to focus on its main role of national defense, a deputy minister of defense said Friday.

The Ministry of National Defense now considers having the military stop doing business, Colonel General Le Chiem said at a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Ho Chi Minh City, without providing a specific timeline for the plan.

“The provisional policy could be implemented with the military completely divesting from all companies it has a stake in, as well as privatizing all military-run enterprises,” the deputy minister elaborated.

The corporate arm of the military is operating in several fields, from banking and construction to fuel and telecom, with such popular names as Viettel Telecom, Military Joint Stock Commercial Bank (MBBank), Military Insurance Company (MIC) and Military Petrochemical (MIPEC).

Once the military no longer has a share in those companies, it will “focus on enhancing and modernizing itself to better fulfill its duty of protecting the Party, the State and the people,” Deputy Minister Chiem underlined.

For those businesses where the military will retain its stake, Chiem said they will “only serve national defense, rather than economic, purposes.”

At Friday’s meeting, Chiem also addressed the headline-making golf course that lies adjacent to the overloaded Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City.

The golf course, located within a 157-hectare land plot, has been criticized for occupying an area which should have been used to expand Vietnam’s busiest airdrome.

In mid-June, PM Phuc requested a cessation of all construction activities inside the golf course, pending a feasibility study for a new runway for Tan Son Nhat.

Chiem said the defense ministry has strictly followed the premier’s request.

The colonel general reassured that Ho Chi Minh City authorities should not worry about how the land issue would be resolved.

“The defense ministry’s view on this issue is that the development of civil aviation should be prioritized,” he said.

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