The Chinese government has ordered state-owned enterprise bosses to draw up and implement rules on business expenses for managerial staff by next year.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) has instructed the 167 central SOEs that the rules should improve the transparency and administration of managers' business expenses.

SOE managers have so far operated without explicit regulations and their expense accounts, including expenditure on receptions, gifts and transport, have been notoriously opaque and arbitrary.

The rules were intended to help improve corporate governance of SOEs, said an SASAC official.

The document aimed to encourage SOEs to take the first steps to setting up a regulation framework.

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