Practical Measures Adopted in Three-Year Action Plan for SOE Reform

The year 2020 kicked off the three-year action plan for state-owned enterprises with new achievements and highlights.

Starting from Dec 28, 2020, the mainstream media have made several detailed and vivid reports on the key measures implemented by various departments, provinces and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for the three-year reform period.

Shanghai: Issue implementation plan to improve state-owned assets and SOEs

Shanghai has formulated an implementation plan on three-year action plan (2020-22) for SOE reform that is focused on improving state-owned assets and SOEs to achieve high-quality development.

The plan said that by 2022, about 10 new SOEs in Shanghai will be listed in the STAR Market, state-controlled listed enterprises with a higher proportion of state-owned shareholders will bring in strategic investors in corporate governance, companies in competitive sectors that currently do not meet the listing requirements will also bring in strategic investors to form mixed-ownership, and comprehensive reform pilot zones will focus on ten innovative fields such as integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and digital cities.

Shanghai will focus on serving the country and the city's major development strategies in its SOE reform.

It will promote implementation of major tasks such as building of the Lingang area of the Shanghai pilot free trade zone and the demonstration zone of green and integrated ecological development of the Yangtze River Delta, highlighting brand strategies revolving around integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence and strengthening of services to improve people's livelihoods.

Shanghai will make all-out efforts to improve development quality and efficiency in its deepening reforms.

It will deepen the reform of mixed ownership, improve the operational efficiency of state-owned capital, promote SOEs' deepening reform and adjustment, and enhance enterprises' independent innovation capabilities.

Anhui: Roll out plan to promote reform of state-owned assets and SOEs

On Dec 25, 2020, Anhui Province passed an implementation plan on three-year action plan for SOE reform.

It consists of forty-one reform measures in eight parts, including optimizing and restructuring the state-owned economy, improving SOEs' vitality and efficiency, expanding their competitiveness and influence, and enhancing SOEs' capabilities in innovation and risk avoidance.

Since 2020, Anhui has actively promoted the mixed-ownership reform of SOEs, accelerated the concentration of state-owned assets in key industries and areas, strengthened standardization of the board of directors of provincial SOEs, supported enterprises' restructuring and listing and also stepped up supervision of state-owned assets and intensified the pilot reform of employees holding shares in state-controlled mixed-ownership enterprises.

Its deepening reform has continuously improved the development quality and efficiency of provincial SOEs.

In the first 11 months of 2020, the total operating income of twenty-eight provincial SOEs reached 847.54 billion yuan ($131 billion) and their total profits were 75.25 billion yuan, increasing by 12 percent and 7.8 percent respectively; by the end of October 2020, compared with other provincial SOEs, the operating income and total profit of Anhui provincial SOEs ranked 7th and 3rd respectively in the country.

Jiangxi: Draw the blueprint on three-year action plan for SOE reform and innovation

Jiangxi Province has started a new journey of SOE reform.

By 2022, the province's total SOE assets are expected to exceed 5 trillion yuan with a 20 percent annual growth rate in operating income, so that the total assets of provincial supervised SOEs will exceed 2 trillion yuan and their operating income will be more than 1 trillion yuan, contributing to the high-quality development of the state-owned economy.

In September 2020, Jiangxi issued a three-year reform plan requiring provincial SOEs and provincial state-owned assets to optimize and adjust the structure of the state-owned economy, develop a mixed-ownership economy, improve the modern enterprise system, establish a vibrant market-oriented operating mechanism and strengthen SOEs' capabilities in innovative research and development.

Thirty specific tasks have been specified in the plan as a blueprint for the development of SOEs in the province in the next three years.

To address problems in SOE development such as limited scale of the state-owned economy, poor layout, insufficient innovation capabilities, and lack of motivation and influence, the plan put forward reform measures in key areas, including expanding market-oriented strategic reorganization and mergers and acquisitions, revitalizing state-owned assets and resources and accelerating restructuring and listing as well as using varied market-based compensation and incentives to encourage enterprises' innovation and entrepreneurship.

Meanwhile, to improve the vitality, innovation, competitiveness and contribution of SOEs, Jiangxi will establish the first responsible individual system and an inspection and supervision mechanism to carry out investigations of enterprises that are slow in reform and cannot complete the phased tasks.

Chongqing: Advance key projects in implementing three-year action plan for SOE reform

2021 is the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and the start of a new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way. It is also a crucial year for the implementation of the three-year reform plan of the city's SOEs.

Chongqing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission will advance several key projects to make new breakthroughs: first, advance innovative R&D projects and cultivate new driving forces for high-quality development of SOEs; second, implement projects to upgrade traditional industries and shape new competitive advantages of SOEs in modern ones; third, encourage digital transformation projects and promote the integration of the real economy and digital economy; fourth, carry out cross-regional and municipal-level major infrastructure construction projects and demonstrate the achievements made by SOEs; fifth, ensure the implementation of major public service projects in the city and fulfill SOEs' mission of stabilizing the state-owned economy and improving people's livelihoods; sixth, implement SOEs' reform projects and stimulate market vitality; seventh, advance enterprise safety development projects and stress new measures for overall development and safety; eighth, launch projects to improve corporate management and consolidate SOEs' capabilities in risk avoidance; ninth, advance projects to build enterprises' internal control system and improve their operation and management efficiency; tenth, deepen reform of the state-owned assets supervision system by focusing on capital management while building a new such system.

Gansu: Steadily advance the three-year action plan for SOE reform

Taking the three-year action plan for SOE reform as an opportunity, Gansu Province has continuously deepened its SOE reform and made positive achievements.

In 2020, thirty-three provincial supervised SOEs' carried out 488 key tasks in the three-year action plan. So far, 481 items have been completed, with a task completion rate of 98.57 percent and a three-year task completion rate of 17.34 percent.

On Oct 26, 2020, Gansu issued its three-year action plan for SOE reform. The plan focuses on improving the modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics, promoting the optimization and structural adjustment of the state-owned economy, deepening reform of mixed ownership, improving market-oriented operating mechanisms, and forming a state-owned assets supervision system based on capital management.

In addition, 110 key reform tasks were clarified in the plan as a blueprint for the development of SOEs in the province for the next three years.

Since the plan was issued, all provincial SOEs as well as prefectures and cities in Gansu and Lanzhou New Area have taken the initiative to plan ahead and formulate implementation plans for their regions and departments in accordance with the requirements of the plan, working hard to advance the key reform tasks of the year.

Some problems have been solved and preliminary achievements have been made, laying a good foundation for the continuous deepening of reforms this year and the next.

From January to November 2020, SOEs supervised by Gansu achieved a total industrial output value of 225.75 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.73 percent, of which the province's total industrial output value was 178.72 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.42 percent. Their total operating income was 665.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.33 percent, and their total profit reached 10.86 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.46 percent.

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)