China Pushes Forward Merger, Bankruptcy PolicyChina is pushing forward the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by allowing more loss-incurring firms to get annexed or go bankrupt.According to the State Economic and Trade Commission, China has announced 1,093 merger or bankruptcy projects so far this year, and related departments are drafting plans for more in the latter half of this year. China began to carry out the merger and bankruptcy policy in 1996, mainly in coal, nonferrous metal, sugar, textile, iron and steel, and defense industries, in a bid to streamline and restructure SOEs. As a result, more than 6,400 large and medium-sized SOEs were merged or downsized during 1996 to 1998, and 1,843 enterprises went bankrupt or closed in 1999, writing off non-performing loans of 29.1 billion yuan, according to the commission. |
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