Official calls for cooperation between state, private companies

BEIJING - Chief of China's state assets regulator has called for closer cooperation between State-owned and private enterprises to facilitate high-quality development of the broader economy.

A prosperous Chinese economy requires joint efforts of enterprises of all types of ownership, Xiao Yaqing, head of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said in an article published in the newspaper Study Times Wednesday.

While State-owned enterprises (SOEs) play an important role in basic industries and traditional manufacturing, private companies thrive from services and processing industries and have started to enter high-tech and emerging sectors, Xiao said, noting they are highly-complementary and together make up a complete industrial system.

Xiao said a stable Chinese economy provided SOEs and private businesses with ample room to grow and expand cooperation.

China, still a developing economy, remains in the middle of industrialization and boasts an enormous, promising market, Xiao said, adding that there could be much improvement in manufacturing, innovation, urban-rural coordination, and people's livelihoods.

Xiao urged state and private companies, as independent market entities, to cooperate in competition and achieve win-win results.

Progress has been made in such cooperation. Private companies invested a total of 1.26 trillion yuan ($190 billion) in state assets, including through equities transfers, IPOs and asset reorganization, during 2013 to 2018.

In the past two years, more than 2,000 centrally-administered SOEs have undergone controlling-interest transfers and have become entities with privately controlled ownership. And centrally-administered SOEs also cooperated more closely with private companies in investing in high technology, ecological and environmental protection and strategically emerging industries, according to Xiao.