Chinese analysts say that a recent meeting convened by top economic advisor Liu He signals further acceleration of ongoing mixed-ownership reforms of China’s state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector.
The State Council’s State-owned Enterprise Reform Leadership Team (国务院国有企业改革领导小组) convened its first meeting in Beijing on 26 July according to the Chinese government’s official website.
The occasion also marked a major reshuffle of SOE senior officials, with the release of the “State Council Office’s Notice Concerning Adjustments to the Membership of the State Council’s State-owned Enterprise Reform Leadership Team” (国务院办公厅关于调整国务院国有企业改革领导小组组成人员的通知).
Liu He, Chinese vice-premier and head of the reform leadership team, presided over the meeting which declared that “SOE reform development has made historic accomplishments, with the basic completion of the SOE reform top-level plan, the formulation of a series of reform documents, and the implementation of a raft of major reform measures.”
Domestic analysts said to Shanghai Securities News that the meeting and leadership reshuffle signals a relaunch of SOE reforms, with an emphasis upon market-based SOE mixed-ownership reforms and restructuring.
The meeting pointed out that there have been “new changes to the domestic and external environment for SOE reforms,” resulting in “new challenges,” which means that “the path of the reform mission is long and hard.”
The meeting called for “accelerating the optimisation of central SOE arrangements and structural adjustments, accelerating the formation of corporate legal person administrative structures that serve as effective restraints, and flexible, high-efficiency market-based operating mechanisms.”
Other areas of emphasis include “advancing information openness to create ‘sunshine central SOE’s,'” and “effectively waging the war for the prevention and resolution of major risk.”
