More than 2,000 debt-ridden state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will
be closed down or go bankrupt in the next four years, the
State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission
(SASAC) said yesterday.
The loss of the 2,167 SOEs expected to go under will leave 3.66
million employees needing reallocation.
The enterprises, mostly large and medium-sized SOEs that have
posted consecutive years of losses and have little hope of turning
around and paying back their debts, will be the last to undergo
policy-arranged SOE closure or bankruptcy in China, for which the
government foots the bill. Following the expected closures, SOE
bankruptcies are likely to be market-oriented.
In the decade up to the end of 2004 the government ordered the
closure of 3,484 State-run projects and businesses.The closures
involved about 237 billion yuan (US$28.6 billion) of loan loss
provision to write off bad debts and affected 6.67 million
employees.
Li Rongrong, minister of SASAC, said yesterday that the planned
SOE reshuffle will make stability the top priority while protecting
the legal interests of employees affected by closures.
The enterprises that are expected to be closed or go bankrupt
according to the schedule should first have relevant reallocation
funds settled, he said during a work conference of the commission
held yesterday in the city of Chongqing.
He urged local governments and State assets watchdogs to work
together closely to ensure stability during the transition.
According to SASAC statistics, the number of SOEs and
State-controlled firms in China had declined from 238,000 in 1998
to 150,000 at the end of 2003. But such enterprises meantime
witnessed their profits rise 22 fold during the period to a
combined 495.1 billion yuan (US$59.8 billion) in 2003.
According to Li, this shows that State restructuring has been
moving in the right direction.
Last year, 14 big SOEs from China were included in the world's
top 500 businesses listed by Fortune magazine.
For small and medium-sized SOEs, changes have been even faster
and more drastic, with more than 80 per cent of them undertaking
reforms through mergers and acquisitions, rental, contracting and
shareholding restructuring to improve efficiency, SASAC sources
said.
To ensure standard practice during such reforms and to curb
irregularities, Li Rongrong said the SASAC would join hands with
relevant government departments to enhance supervision of the
transfer of State-owned assets and equities, improve the
performance evaluation systems for SOE managers and come up with
more up-to-date regulations.
(China Daily May 12, 2005)