More SOEs to be going private: Official

More State-owned enterprises might be spun off as private entities to help improve economic growth, but Beijing will maintain control over major industries, a Cabinet official said Thursday.

Regulators are working on plans to overhaul ownership following the ruling party's pledge to increase competition in State-dominated industries last month, said Huang Shuhe, vice-chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the country's top regulator of SOEs.

Economists say that Beijing must curb the dominance of State companies that control swaths of the economy, from banking to oil to steel production, or risk seeing China's growth rate plunge. The development blueprint issued last month released guidelines to open up more industries to competition, although it also said that State ownership will remain at the core of the economy.