SOEs set to reshape economic growth

China's centrally administered State-owned enterprises will actively foster emerging industries and accelerate the modernization of traditional ones to drive economic growth in 2025, the country's top State-owned assets regulator said on Friday.

Addressing a news conference in Beijing, Yuan Ye, vice-chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, or SASAC, said the government will encourage central SOEs to achieve breakthroughs in core as well as emerging technologies and actively take on major science and technology projects.

Strategic emerging industries in China include sectors such as energy-saving and environmental protection, next-generation information technology, biotechnology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, advanced materials and electric vehicles, the SASAC said.

Yuan said that central SOEs will be urged to focus on fundamental research with clear goals and work toward mastering and developing more innovative technologies.

In 2024, the total assets of central SOEs exceeded 90 trillion yuan ($12.28 trillion), a year-on-year increase of 5.9 percent, while their total profits reached 2.6 trillion yuan, data from the SASAC showed.

Meanwhile, central SOEs invested 2.7 trillion yuan in strategic emerging industries, up 21.8 percent on a yearly basis.

Lin Qingmiao, head of the SASAC's bureau of enterprise reform, said the government's key focus will be on the restructuring and integration of central SOEs, in order to further promote the optimization of the State-owned economy's structural adjustment going forward.

"We will speed up the allocation of State capital to critical industries related to national security and the lifeline of national economy, public services, emergency response capabilities, public welfare and strategic emerging industries," said Lin.

Faced with growing external challenges and uncertainties, it is crucial that SOEs bolster market-oriented applied basic research, improve technological foresight, diversify strategies and gain mastery over more "core technologies," said Zhou Lisha, a researcher at the Institute for State-owned Enterprises, which is part of Tsinghua University in Beijing.

"Once breakthroughs are achieved in basic research and original innovation, companies are able to reshape industries and market competition, leading to a fundamental transformation in productivity," said Zhou.

Strengthening innovation capabilities is key for SOEs to effectively compete with established competitors globally, Zhou added.

Eager to seize more market share in both domestic and global markets, Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd (COMAC), a Shanghai-based central SOE, plans to invest 10 billion yuan annually in research and development in Shanghai over the next three years, along with another 10 billion yuan annually in fixed-asset investments within the city.

Qian Zhongyan, board chairman and president of COMAC Era (Shanghai) Aviation Co Ltd, a COMAC subsidiary, said that COMAC expects annual sales revenue from new aircraft to exceed 10 billion yuan over the next three years.

Highlighting the successful market entry of the C919, domestically developed large passenger aircraft, with a total of 1,061 new orders, Qian said that the C929 jet, with more than 250 seats and a flying range of up to 12,000 kilometers, is preparing for its global launch.