China's top state-owned assets supervisor aims to get at least 16 state-owned enterprises listed this year to attract investors to pump money into these firms which now depend solely on government funds, a report said yesterday.

The move is part of the central government's efforts to reshuffle some of its state economic resources via market-driven channels so that it can better adjust its economic pattern and structure, seen as key in China's economic development in the next five years.

The potential listings are expected to be on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong markets when China Reform Holdings Corp, a state-owned asset management firm, reshuffles some small SOEs and chooses the candidate firms, China Securities Journal reported yesterday.

The SOEs will be more likely from industries that do not affect national security and are not so crucial to the national economy, the newspaper cited insiders as saying.

Small research institutions and commercial companies may be top of the restructuring list, the report added.

The 16 future listings will be the second batch of listed SOEs after 24 firms got listed last year.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission established China Reform last month with a total registered capital of 4.5 billion yuan (US$681 million) to better restructure and merge small, non-competitive SOEs.