Central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) had almost 18 trillion yuan of assets at the end of last year, of which 80 percent was already listed, said Li Rongrong, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), on June 29.

The number of central SOEs has dropped from 196 during the early years after the SASAC was established to the current 138 Li said. Strictly speaking, there are few wholly state-owned companies such as China National Petroleum Corporation which is state-owned and solely funded by the central government with its main assets listed.

The SASAC aims to reduce the number of central SOEs to between 80 and 100 by 2010; 30 to 50 of these will be internationally competitive large enterprises or groups.

Data shows that between 2002 and 2008, the total assets of central SOEs increased from 7.13 trillion yuan to 17.7 trillion yuan, an average annual increase of 1.76 trillion yuan.

Sales revenue rose from 3.36 trillion yuan to 11.9 trillion yuan while taxes paid increased from 291.48 billion yuan to 991.4 billion yuan, an average annual increase of 1.42 trillion yuan and 116.65 billion yuan respectively.

By People's Daily Online