Regulator asks SOEs to enhance industry chains

China's State asset regulator has urged centrally administered State-owned enterprises to actively integrate into the nation's basic research activities and applied innovation systems, in order to create a source for original technologies and reinforce their positions in industry chains.

Central SOEs should enhance key core technology research for industrial machine tools, high-end chips, new materials, new energy vehicles and other products.

SOEs should master core technologies, shoulder the responsibility of smooth operations of industry chains in the next stage, said the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission in an online statement on Thursday.

The SASAC operates under the aegis of the State Council, China's Cabinet.

Addressing a recent meeting in Beijing, Hao Peng, chairman of the SASAC, stressed that it is vital for central SOEs to carry out special actions to uphold the industry chain, and strengthen the coordination between the upstream and downstream businesses, and actively fuel the growth of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

China will also promote the optimization and structural adjustment of State-owned capital, and focus on strategic emerging industries to form new central SOE groups in due course, to deepen the country's supply-side structural reform and support innovation-based growth, Hao said.

Last month, two subsidiaries of China State Shipbuilding Corp Ltd (CSSC) set out to build the world's first smart unmanned mother ship. It will be equipped with China-made smart systems for power, propulsion, investigation and operations and is expected to have outstanding maneuverability and flexibility.

The ship will be able to automatically navigate and berth, and conduct remote monitoring and control and equipment supervision while it is in open waters by using sensors, satellite communication systems and internet devices, said Du Gang, CSSC's vice-president.

Amid steady economic operations and sustained external demand, central SOEs' net profit surged 112.4 percent year-on-year to 1.2 trillion yuan ($184.8 billion) in the first seven months of 2021, while their sales revenue soared 27.4 percent on a yearly basis to 20 trillion yuan, SASAC data showed.

Earlier this week, apart from encouraging technology breakthroughs, the government launched a program to promote coordination between locally administered SOEs in the country's northeast region and central SOEs, to ramp up the revitalization of Northeast China, SASAC information showed.

Some 111 local SOEs in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region will work closely with 100 subsidiaries of 53 central SOEs.

The government will enhance resource sharing and industrial integration between these enterprises to deepen reforms of State-owned assets and firms in the region, and promote high-quality development of local SOEs.

These business groups will cooperate for optimizing and coordinating industry and supply chains, transforming and upgrading traditional industries, making breakthroughs in core technologies, improving corporate governance and enhancing the building of talent teams.

Reform of State-owned assets and firms in the region achieved positive results in the first half of this year, with combined operating revenue of local SOEs and locally based central SOEs and their subsidiaries surging 28 percent year-on-year, SASAC data showed.