Under Investment Law 2014, a Government guarantee for an important investment project is only available to, among other things, State-owned enterprises participating in that project. Therefore, sponsors of a BOT project should not expect to ask for a Government guarantee for obligations of non-State owned enterprises under Investment Law 2014.
If the Business Registration Certificate of a single member limited liability company (Top-level SOE) records “the State” or a State authority (e.g. a Ministry or a provincial People’s Committee) as the owner of such company then such Top level SOE could be considered as a State-owned enterprise. PetroVietnam and EVN are typical Top-level SOE.
If the Business Registration Certificate of a single member limited liability company records a Top level SOE as the owner of such company (Low-level SOE) then it becomes less clear whether a Low-level SOE (or a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Low-level SOE) is a State-owned enterprise. In practice, the number of Low-level SOEs is much higher than Top-level SOE. Many Low-level SOEs (e.g. Genco 3, a subsidiary of EVN) control substantial assets and are parties to important project documents .
The Enterprise Law 2014 seems to assume that a State-owned enterprise must be a single member limited liability company. Therefore, it is not clear whether an enterprise jointly owned by more than one State authorities (e.g. a joint stock companies between three ministries) could be considered as a State-owned enterprise.