China makes progress on reform of state-owned enterprises

BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Remarkable progress has been made in reforming China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with major tasks in a three-year action plan all now completed, involving about 80,000 enterprises.

The action plan, which builds on decades of efforts to transform SOEs into competitive, modern enterprises, is a major highlight in China's efforts to deepen reform and opening-up.

It has improved the corporate governance of the SOEs. According to the office of the State Council leading group for SOE reform, about 13,000 subsidiary enterprises of the centrally administered SOEs and about 25,000 subsidiary enterprises of locally administered SOEs have established boards of directors.

To build a standard board of directors is a key link in forging a modern corporate system for the SOEs.

As a highlight of the reform push, the reform of the corporate system has been completed comprehensively, a historic breakthrough that further consolidated the legal basis for the SOEs to participate in competition as independent market players.

Meanwhile, the tenure and contractual management for managers has been promoted across the SOEs, covering over 80,000 enterprises and 220,000 people.

SOEs are active players on China's strategically important and most acclaimed industrial fronts.

More than 70 percent of the operating revenues of central SOEs are related to national security, the lifeblood of the national economy and people's livelihoods.

Zhang Yuzhuo, Party secretary of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, said the SOEs will focus on strategic security, the national economy and people's livelihoods, and public services, while fostering strategic emerging industries to better play a leading role in building a modern industrial system.

In the past three years, work has been done to integrate the leadership of the Communist Party of China with corporate governance in SOEs, highlight their role as market entities, and advance system reform, said a conference on the three-year action plan held Tuesday.

The SOEs have become leaner and healthier, their system to encourage technological innovation has been improved, and supervision over state assets has become more professional, systematic and law-based, it said.

The conference pledged to plan and push for further reform in the SOEs to improve their core competitiveness and core functions.

The SOEs raked in 82.6 trillion yuan (about 12.2 trillion U.S. dollars) in operating revenues in 2022, up 8.3 percent from the previous year, data from the Ministry of Finance showed.