The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's economic planner, said it will continue to encourage the participation of private and foreign companies in State-owned enterprise (SOE) reform through various ways, such as equity investment and debt-to-equity schemes.

Mixed-ownership reform is a major breakthrough in SOE reform, the NDRC said in a post published on its website on Thursday.

For the moment, a slew of exemplary projects have covered centrally administrated enterprises and some firms under the control of local governments, the post said. Seven major sectors such as electricity, crude oil, natural gas and railroads are involved.

The NDRC also mentioned that there has been some progress in mixed-ownership reform with the participation of private and foreign capital. State-owned telecom carrier China Unicom has introduced new strategic investors including Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, and has further streamlined its management structure.

State-owned investment company CITIC Group has listed its wholly owned subsidiary - CITIC Pacific - in Hong Kong, backed by investors including Singapore-based investment firm Temasek and the Qatar Investment Authority.