China's central State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are expected to
profit a combined one trillion yuan ($135.14 billion) this year, up
from the 920 billion yuan predicted earlier and bringing the
central SOEs assets total to 13 trillion yuan, according to the
Shanghai Securities News.
Li Rongrong, minister of the State-owned Assets Supervision and
Administration Commission (SASAC), said Saturday at the China
Entrepreneur Summit 2007 that China's central SOEs' assets total
exceeded 12 trillion yuan as of the end of 2006.
Between 2004 and 2006, central SOEs' combined assets grew to 12
trillion yuan from 7.13 trillion yuan, an annual growth of 1.3
trillion yuan and equal to the total assets of PetroChina, one of
China's biggest oil producers, Li said at the forum.
The minister also said central SOEs demonstrated improving
competitiveness during the period. In 2003, only six Chinese
enterprises ranked among the world's top 500 firms, but by 2006,
the number had increased to 16.
Statistics from SASAC show that total profit of China's 445 SOEs
rose to 889.1 billion yuan last year, up from 761.6 billion yuan in
2005.
The 417 major SOEs reported a 33.5-percent rise in profits for
the first seven months this year, with their combined profits
rising to 661.5 billion yuan in the January-July period, from 495.5
billion yuan a year earlier, according to SASAC statistics.
To deeply reform its central SOEs, Li said earlier last month
China will speed up the process to encourage eligible central SOEs
or their main businesses to become fully listing in three
years.
(China Daily December 10, 2007)
