China central SOE net profits up 35.71% in past three years

Between 2020 and 2022, net profits at China's centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) rose 35.71 percent to 1.9 trillion yuan (US$279.8 billion), official data showed.

Meanwhile, the operating revenues of China's centrally administered SOEs increased 30.03 percent from 2020 to reach 39.4 trillion yuan in 2022, according to data from the country's SOE regulator.

The net profits and revenues of centrally administered SOEs grew at a rather fast pace in the past three years as a whole, given that their net profits grew 5.5 percent year on year and revenues increased 8.3 percent year on year, respectively, in 2022.

China started to implement a three-year action plan for SOE reform in 2020 and issued a mobilization order to deepen this reform. Thanks to the 2020-2022 action plan, China's SOEs balanced the COVID-19 response with effective production and introduced a series of reforms.

The action plan has led to all-out efforts and numerous breakthroughs in key areas, including optimizing the modern enterprise system and the market-oriented operation mechanism.

Among these efforts, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council has selected 16 enterprises as "chain heads" in modern industrial chains in two batches, and made progress in stabilizing, supplementing and strengthening the chains.

Since 2020, the average annual investment growth rate of strategic emerging industries of central SOEs has exceeded 20 percent, and there has been more power in high-quality development.

In the new materials industry, China National Building Material Group initiated the establishment of a new materials industry fund with a scale of 15 billion yuan. Its capital is comprised of 70 percent social capital and 30 percent of the company's own capital. It has invested 4.8 billion yuan in new materials and frontier directions.

The three-year action plan has improved the corporate governance of the SOEs. According to the office of the State Council leading group for SOE reform, about 13,000 subsidiary enterprises of the centrally administered SOEs and about 25,000 subsidiary enterprises of locally administered SOEs have established boards of directors. Building a standard board of directors is a key link in forging a modern corporate system for SOEs.

As a highlight of the reform push, the reform of the corporate system has been completed comprehensively, a historic breakthrough that further consolidated the legal basis for the SOEs to participate in the competition as independent market players.

Meanwhile, the tenure and contractual management for managers have been promoted across the SOEs, covering over 80,000 enterprises and 220,000 people.

As a result, remarkable progress has been made in reforming China's SOEs, with major tasks in a three-year action plan all now completed. The action plan, which builds on decades of efforts to transform SOEs into competitive, modern enterprises, is a major highlight in China's efforts to deepen reform and opening up.

SOEs are active players on China's strategically important and most acclaimed industrial fronts.

A total of 99 Chinese SOEs were included on the 2022 Fortune Global 500 List.