SOEs smaller but stronger
Updated: 2007-12-22 13:48
China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported a year of prosperity. Annual profits were forecast to surge 30 percent to nearly a trillion yuan ($135.8 billion) this year, however, it was evident many still had a long way to go to become internationally competitive.
China currently has 152 centrally administered SOEs, all under the supervision of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC). They embrace many leading enterprises in key sectors such as energy, mineral resources, transport, telecom, machinery manufacturing and defence, among others.
Reforms lead to growth
The SOEs saw their combined assets climb to 14.6 trillion yuan in the January-November period, an increase of 21 percent over the same period a year earlier. Their number fell from 159 at the beginning of the year as a result of mergers and the sale of some aimed to improve the structure of state assets.
Earlier statistics revealed that the total assets of central SOEs had already jumped 146 percent. In addition, profits increased two-fold when the number of SOEs dropped to about 160 last year from 196 in 2002.
Reforms were at the core of these impressive improvements of the SOEs, previously known for their "plump size and slack performance".
After China's SOEs were separated from administrative government bodies to exist as independent enterprises, a major shift from the planned economy, these enterprises went through further shareholder reforms to build themselves into real corporate entities.
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