File photo shows a steel factory of China Baowu Steel Group Corporation Limited in Shanghai, east China. (China Baowu/Handout via Xinhua)
BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) -- China's 3-year action plan to reform state-owned enterprises (SOEs) advanced smoothly and steadily in the first half of 2022 and the major tasks of the 3-year action plan have been completed in the final year of implementation for the plan.
For instance, the modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics has become more mature and efforts on building Chinese SOEs into world-class ones have made initial achievements.
All of these are exuberant outcomes released by a seminar held among heads of central SOEs by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) from July 16 to 17.
Hao Peng, head of SASAC, stressed the importance of ensuring a successful conclusion of the action plan by maintaining a sound momentum of robust profit growth and high-quality development of SOEs.
-- Net profits of central SOEs up 6.1 percent year on year in the first half of this year
From January to June, central SOEs have maintained robust and high-quality growths despite influences from the drastic changes unseen in a century and the worldwide pandemic.
Statistics with SASAC showed that central SOEs raked in 19.2 trillion yuan of revenue, 1.4 trillion yuan of profits and 1.1 trillion yuan of net profits, up 12.0 percent, 7.1 percent, and 6.1 percent year on year respectively.
These are attributable to the efforts made by SASAC and central SOEs to combat influences from the COVID-19 resurgence at home and abroad, increasingly volatile international circumstances and other unexpected factors this year.
Since the start of this year, SASAC has carried out in-depth and targeted actions to improve quality and efficiency of central SOEs and conducted comprehensive supervision and investigation to stabilize growth, prevent risks, andadvance reforms.
In the meantime, central SOEs withstood pressures in spite of all difficulties and made every effort to expand the market, grasp opportunities, tap into potentials, and improve cost-effectiveness.
Song Xiangqing, director of the industrial economy research center of Beijing Normal University, said that the semi-annual key performance indicators of central SOEs are beyond expectation, which is quite encouraging.
With the gratifying semiannual results, SASAC highlighted realization via all-out efforts of the 6.5 percent annual net profit growth target for central SOEs.
The annual goal is seen to be attainable if no critical events occur during the year, noted Liu Xingguo, researcher with China Enterprise Confederation, adding that in the second half of this year, central SOEs are expected to embrace further improvement in business performance alongside the accelerated implementation of measures taken by China to stabilize economic growth and press ahead with reforms.
-- Ensuring a high-quality conclusion of the 3-year action plan urged
Speedy progresses are made in various reforms to fulfill the three-year action plan for SOE reform.
In the first six months of 2022, central SOEs achieved new breakthroughs in a number of key fields and areas. For example, 12,700 eligible subsidiaries of central SOEs have built their boards of directors, and 99.3 percent of them have a majority of external directors. Five enterprises, including China Baowu Steel Group, have officially become state-owned capital-invested companies. Moreover, central SOEs have attracted over 190 billion yuan of capitals of varied types.
Restructuring also frequently appeared among central SOEs. At the beginning of 2022, COFCO and China Grain Reserves Group conducted equity cooperation in grain storage and processing. SOEs specializing in medical care and examination completed in-depth resource integration. 99 percent of non-major and non-advantageous businesses have been stripped from SOEs, up 13 percentage points from the beginning of the year.
Multiple actions have also been advanced to build SOEs into world-class enterprises. Data from SASAC showed that the number of SOEs listed among the Fortune Global 500 increased from 65 ones in 2012 to 96 ones in 2021, including a group of competitive enterprises in ship making, steel, energy, construction, water transport, and equipment manufacturing sectors.
Accelerating construction of world-class enterprises is an overall objective that must be focused on for the current and future reform of central SOEs and a significant goal of holistic, strategic, and guiding importance, said Hao.
In the second half of 2022, new measures to spur the vitality of central SOEs, enhance their value creation capacities, and improve their competitiveness, are expected to be rolled out so as to build them into world-class ones, according to Liu.
SASAC required sound strategic planning and classified advancement of building world-class enterprises. Superior enterprises are urged to take the lead to achieve this goal. Enterprises with solid business basis are anticipated to expedite their paces. The rest are required to benchmark against the standards and take targeted efforts.
Apart from the demonstration campaign to build world-class enterprises and the management improvement campaign to further benchmark against top-notch management standards, SASAC will also launch value creation and brand upgrading actions among central SOEs, in order to build first-class enterprises with world leading scale and profitability as well as technologically advanced enterprises that specialize in niche sectors by 2025. (Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)
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