State-owned enterprises record profit increase

The revenues of China's State-owned enterprises (SOEs) increased 10.3 percent year-on-year to 54.8 trillion yuan ($8.09 trillion) in 2018.

The increase has been thanks to the stable progress advanced by supply-side structural reform and resource optimization, the country's SOE regulator announced on Wednesday.

Profits grew by 13.2 percent year-on-year to 3.4 trillion yuan last year, according to a statement from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

Meanwhile the sales revenues and profits of China's 96 centrally administered SOEs came to 29.1 trillion yuan and 1.7 trillion yuan, respectively, up 10.1 percent and 16.7 percent.

SASAC said it will strengthen SOEs' risk control function in 2019, especially in areas such as debt, finance, law, security stability and environmental protection.

It will also encourage independent innovation and make breakthroughs in key technologies, as well as promote the transformation and development of the manufacturing industry, according to the statement.