China’s State Council has hailed the “high quality” growth of state-owned enterprises (SOE) under the control of the central government during its most recently concluded five year plan.
Central SOE’s saw their total assets breach the 50 trillion and 60 trillion yuan thresholds successively during the course of the 13th Five Year Plan (2016 – 2020), eventually rising to 69.1 trillion yuan (approx. USD$10.7 trillion) as of the end of last year.
The average annual growth rate of China’s central SOE assets during the 13th Five Year Plan was 7.7%.
The State Council also hailed improvements to the efficiency of central SOE’s during the 13th Five Year plan, pointing to average annual growth in labour productivity of 7.8%.
The operating income margin of central SOE’s rose by 1.7 percentage points during the period, while their asset-liability ratio fell by 2.2 percentage points.
Central SOE’s made investments of 17.9 trillion yuan in coordinated regional development strategies for areas such as Jing-Jin-Ji and the Yangtze River Delta during the five year period, for an increase of 36.4% compared to the 12th Five Year Plan.
They also invested 3.4 trillion yuan in research and development undertakings, accounting for a quarter of the national total during the period from 2016 to 2020.
China’s central SOE’s currently employ nearly 2 million research staff, including 229 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
