Shanghai's state assets are expected to shrink around 30 percent at the moment to less than one-fifth of its total assets under a new round of restructuring by local state-owned enterprises, a senior government staff member has revealed.

"We will initiate a new round of introduction of private and overseas capital into Shanghai's state-owned and state-holding enterprises in the next few years to take the proportion of State assets in the city below 20 percent," said Zhu Shiyin, president and chief executive officer of Shanghai State-owned Assets Operation Co Ltd, a government-backed enterprise with the sole right to trade state assets in Shanghai.

The general plan for the reform has been approved by the city's municipal government but there is no specific timetable for completion, Zhu said. He made the comments during a recent forum held by McKinsey & Co, which released the Chinese version of its latest book "Capitalist China," written by Jonathan Woetzel, director and general manager of McKinsey & Co PRC Corporate Finance.

Shanghai's massive State assets, worth about US$50 billion after years of more than 20 percent growth, have been on the decline in terms of proportion of the city's total assets - influenced by the strong influx of overseas investment and domestic private capital.

The mix has dropped from 50 percent in the early 1990s to about 30 percent, but still more than half of the State's capital is competing with private and foreign companies in many competitive industries.

Under the government plan, the city's state assets will retreat from ordinary competitive industries to concentrate on pillar and high-tech industries, as well as certain infrastructure and public welfare sectors, according to Zhu.

Specifically, the coverage of the city's state capital will be cut from 80 industries to about 20, Zhu said. "But it will a step-by-step process."

Multinational companies will have "really great opportunities in this round of State asset reorganization," he emphasized.

According to Zhu, foreign and domestic private capital will be encouraged to further buy into some State-owned enterprises or their lucrative subsidiary companies.

"The central driver of China's economic progress over the last two decades has been the government's progressive withdrawal from direct management of the economy while introducing competition," said Woetzel in his new book.

However, China needs even more investment in the coming years to maintain such growth, he said.

Li Wuwei, a senior expert with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, says it is "positive" for the Shanghai authority to further remove State capital from certain competitive industries. But the government should stick to the principle of market practice when allocating the resources.

(China Daily March 23, 2004)