58-year-old is first non-government official to lead SOE regulatory body
Jiang Jiemin, chairman of China National Petroleum Corp, has reportedly been named as the new head of the country's top State-owned assets regulatory body after a two-year tenure as chief of China's largest oil and gas producer and supplier.
He will likely become the third chief in charge of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, established in 2003 to regulate 118 central State-owned enterprises (SOEs), according to local media reports.
Jiang, 58, is the first enterprise executive to be promoted to the position, rather than a government official.
PetroChina Co Ltd, the listed arm of CNPC and China's largest listed oil company by capacity, of which Jiang was also chairman, issued a statement late on Monday to say that Jiang had resigned as its head due to a "change in work".
PetroChina's vice-chairman, Zhou Jiping, will take over from Jiang as the company's chairman, the statement said.
An anonymous source from SASAC said an official statement about the change in personnel within the commission will be made later. There was no official confirmation on Wednesday.
Wang Yong, former head of SASAC, has been named a state councilor.
Thanks to his rich experience in business management, Jiang is expected to carry forward SASAC's functional shift from being the controller of, to being a service provider for, central SOEs, experts said.
"Being familiar with SOE reform, including business integration and restructuring and well as the (stock market) listing process, the new leader of SASAC will be able to cast an enterprise executive's eye on the government's supervisory work, pushing forward the reform of central SOEs," said Yu Bin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Since joining Shandong Shengli Oilfield Co as a technician in 1972, Jiang has been in the petroleum industry, apart from four years working as vice-governor of Qinghai province between 2000 and 2004. Jiang became chairman of CNPC in April 2011.
Jiang was in charge of the company's listing in 1999.
"Jiang participated in every aspect of PetroChina's listing and has helped the company acquire many foreign assets," said Lin Boqiang, director of the Xiamen-based China Center for Energy Economic Research.
"China's oil and gas companies are likely to perform better in the global marketplace after he takes office.
"It is likely that he will bring these experiences to other State-owned companies, too, as they develop overseas, in other industries besides oil and gas," Lin said.
Zhang Laibin, president of the China University of Petroleum, said Jiang's experience in leading CNPC's expansion overseas will contribute to his new job.
Over the past year, the company's overseas oil and gas output reached 100 million metric tons and revenue from its international businesses accounted for 39 percent of its total.
Forty percent of the company's output is from abroad, and Jiang said in January that figure will reach 60 percent by 2020.
The company's latest international move saw it acquire a 20 percent share of four offshore natural gas fields in Mozambique for $4.2 billion, the company's biggest overseas natural gas field investment.
Xu Baoli, a director at the research center of SASAC, said a new head who understands SOEs' demands will play an important role.
"To some extent, SASAC is still acting as a baton for central SOEs, which concentrate on achieving the targets set by the governmental supervisor.
"However, to strengthen their competitiveness, SOEs should shift their focus to meet market demands," Xu said.
Some new guidelines on central SOE reform may accompany the appointment of a new commission head, but the main direction of its reform will remain unchanged, according to Xu.
In recent years, SASAC has focused on three main tasks: the promotion of economic efficiency, the internationalization process and a reform process which has included the control of internal procedures and stock reform.
"Strong business growth of central SOEs was one of the biggest achievements SASAC has made during Wang Yong's tenure as chairman," said Yu at the CASS.
In 2012, total profits generated by central SOEs were 1.3 trillion yuan ($207 billion), a 52.5 percent surge from 2010 when Wang took the position.
The biggest jump in central SOE profits over the past decade was in 2010 when Wang replaced Li Rongrong as the chief of SASAC.
In that year, SASAC generated total profits of 852.2 billion yuan, a 42.8 percent jump from 2009.
"Prior to Wang's management of the commission, SOE profits were still at a low level," said Yu, adding that as well as profit growth, technological innovation and overseas expansion improved greatly.
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