Chinese top legislature began to deliberate its first state
assets law, designed to protect the state-owned assets from being
illegally seized and maintain the country's basic economic
system.
The draft state-owned assets law was submitted to the Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) for first deliberation on Sunday.
The draft, with nine chapters and 76 provisions, stipulates the
central government should set up a budget system for the operation
of state-owned assets, managing the revenue and payout.
"The profit made by SOEs which should be contributed to the
state assets, the income of state assets transfer, and income which
belongs to the state-owned assets during the calculating and check
of SOEs should be written into the budget," it said.
The draft details procedures of SOE restructuring, stipulating
the assets of the SOEs should be accurately calculated, audited and
assessed before restructuring or ownership transfer.
"The state assets should be transferred at reasonable prices," it
said.
In case of merger, restructuring and application for bankruptcy
of SOEs, consultations should be held with relevant trade unions
and opinions should be solicited from the employees through
meetings or other means, according to the draft.
It?prohibits the management of the SOEs from embezzling the
state-owned assets.
People involved will be punished according to relevant laws and
regulations if they are found seizing, withholding, or embezzling
the state assets. They also will face punishment if found to have
transferred the state assets at unreasonable low prices, caused
economic loss to the state assets by dereliction of duty or
committed other misconducts.
China has been implementing reforms in its state enterprises
over the past two decades, restructuring the enterprises with sole
state ownership into joint-venture companies, or transferring SOEs
into non-SOEs.
China's Constitution stipulates that public ownership should be
the leading force of the socialist market economy, of which the
private economy is a major component.
According to statistics provided by China's State-owned Assets
Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), China had nearly
120,000 state-owned enterprises (SOE), including enterprises or
companies with sole state ownership, and joint-venture companies
with the state as biggest shareholders, which possessed assets
worth more than 9,700 billion yuan (about US$1,330 billion) in
2006.
The 31st session of the 10th NPC Standing Committee is being
held from Dec. 23 to 29.
(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2007)