Combined assets of central SOEs hit 75.6 trillion yuan in 2021: report

China’s centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have seen notable progress in advancing reforms and addressing challenges over the past decade, according to a latest report.

During the past decade, centrally administered SOEs have gathered strength and optimized their structures with their combined assets climbing from 31.4 trillion yuan ($4.34 trillion) by the end of 2012 to 75.6 trillion yuan by the end of 2021, said the report released by the research center of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council.

The total investment by the centrally administered SOEs in emerging industries has expanded from 690 billion yuan in 2017 to 1.3 trillion yuan in 2021, the report added.

In the meantime, the centrally administered SOEs have addressed a series of institutional and procedural challenges, and comprehensively completed the corporategovernance reform of SOEs, according to the report.

As the country continues to strengthen supervision of state assets, the centrally administered SOEs have made greater contributions to society in coordinating regional development, as well as promoting rural revitalization and the country’s low-carbon shift, among others, the report said.

By the end of 2021, China almost completed its corporate system reform, said a Chinese official from the SASAC earlier this year.

“Currently 97.7 percent of central SOEs and 99.9 percent of regional SOEs completed the corporate system reform as of the end of 2021, a historic breakthrough in the reform of China’s SOEs,” said Weng Jieming, Deputy Director of the SASAC.

The three-year action plan for SOE reform announced in 2020 has taken the transformation to a new level.