New | Beijing selects six state-owned enterprises for reform trials

The mainland authorities have selected six central government-controlled groups for reform trials aimed at introducing more competition in the state sector and reducing government intervention.

State-owned Assets Supervisory and Administrative Commission (Sasac) spokesman Peng Huagang, who also heads the agency’s leading panel for deepening reforms, announced the decision at a press briefing on Tuesday.

State Development & Investment Corp (SDIC) and Cofco, China’s largest agricultural products and food supplier, would enter into a trial for transformation into state capital investment companies, Peng said.

This trial would involve shifting Sasac’s function to mainly supervising how efficiently capital was used, he said.

The regulator has been criticised for intervening too much in state-owned enterprises’ (SOEs) operations and asset management, which has contributed to SOE returns being stuck, on average, in single digits for nearly two decades.

Wen Zongyu, director of the state-owned economy bureau at the Ministry of Finance’s Institute of Fiscal Science, welcomed the trial on state capital investment companies, saying it would help boost the companies’ efficiency.