In a news conference held in Beijing on Thursday, Zhang Yuzhuo, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council, announced that centrally administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) will aim to achieve a profit growth target higher than the national GDP this year. This move comes as part of the government’s efforts to ensure that the quality and efficiency of central SOEs are solidly enhanced while stabilizing growth and accelerating the pace of constructing world-class enterprises in all respects.
Zhang stated that SASAC will prioritize maintaining stable debt-to-asset ratios while further increasing research and development investment intensity, overall labor productivity, and operating cash ratio for central SOEs. Additionally, the government will carry out a new round of actions to deepen and enhance SOE reforms while intensifying efforts to promote scientific and technological innovation.
Last year, the operating revenue of central SOEs registered 39.6 trillion yuan ($5.75 trillion), up 9.1 percent year-on-year, while total profits reached 2.6 trillion yuan, up 6.2 percent. Per capita overall labor productivity was 763,000 yuan, up 8.7 percent year-on-year, and taxes and fees paid by central SOEs reached 2.8 trillion yuan, up 19.3 percent.
According to Pan Helin, co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center at Zhejiang University’s International Business School, SOEs should continue pursuing quality and efficiency while further investing in technology and innovation to stabilize the national economy. Pan also suggested that the government come up with more detailed plans in various sectors to ensure the sound operation of central SOEs. Over the past decade, the quality and efficiency of central SOEs have been comprehensively improved, with total assets rising from 31.4 trillion yuan to 81 trillion yuan and total profit rising from 1.3 trillion yuan to 2.6 trillion yuan, according to SASAC.