China names 6 SOEs for pilot reforms

BEIJING - Six big state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will pilot reforms in ownership, management and supervision, Chinese authorities announced on Tuesday.

The companies are the State Development & Investment Corporation (SDIC), China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO), China National Building Materials Group (CNBM), China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group (CECEP), Xinxing Cathay International Group (XXCIG) and China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

The SDIC and COFCO will be "reorganized" to establish "state-owned asset investment companies" on a trial basis. Mixed-ownership pilot reforms will be carried out at Sinopharm and CNBM, said SASAC spokesman Peng Huagang at a press conference.

A more effective board of directors system will be set up at XXCIG, CECEP, Sinopharm and CNBM, and "disciplinary inspection teams" will be sent to another two or three unnamed SOEs, said Peng, who is also in charge of reform issues for the SASAC.

The "state-owned asset investment company" has been designed to make the "state," the SASAC in this case, a stake-holder instead of a manager of a SOE so as to raise the company's management and operation efficiency.

For mixed-ownership reform, SOE giants like China National Petroleum Co and China Telecom have carried out their own plans to diversify corporate ownership and attract social funds.

The new board of directors system is meant to make the board act as the company's decision-making center while reducing the management entitlements of investors.

The SASAC will delegate a total of 21 management powers to the SOEs themselves later this month and more powers in September, a source familiar with the matter told Xinhua.

The main goal of the "disciplinary inspection teams" is to defend against "the loss of state-owned assets," Peng Jianguo, vice director of the Research Center of the SASAC, told Xinhua.

The reforms aim to "explore new state-owned asset management modes focused on the management of assets rather than the companies, find effective means for developing a mixed-ownership economy, improve corporate governance structure, and strengthen supervision of executives, Peng Huagang told reporters at the press conference.

The announcement came eight months after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee unveiled a sweeping reform agenda including bids to improve the management of state-owned assets and SOEs.

"The pilots signal that the reform of SOEs and state-owned assets has entered a new stage where top-level design and pilot reforms go hand in hand," said Peng Jianguo.

Mountaintop Airport In Guangxi	Top 10 dairy companies in the world