President Xi Jinping has instructed central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to serve as the bedrock of national development, urging them to drive industrial upgrading and secure critical technologies in the next phase of China’s growth.
“Central SOEs must fully recognise the responsibilities and missions they shoulder and better serve the overall priorities of the party and the state,” he stressed in remarks conveyed to a meeting of central SOE leaders in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday, though he did not attend in person, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.
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Xi ordered enterprises to focus on their core businesses, strengthen competitiveness and achieve breakthroughs in critical technologies.
He also called for enhanced management capabilities to transform state firms into world-class entities and safeguard their development.
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SOEs and state capital, which Beijing has vowed to strengthen in the next five years, have been the backbone of China’s socio-economic fabric, especially in strategic and livelihood-related sectors.
By the end of 2024, China’s central SOEs held 91 trillion yuan (US$13 trillion) in assets – an average annual increase of 7.3 per cent since 2021. Each year, they spend more than 15 trillion yuan on procurement, directly supporting around 2 million upstream and downstream businesses, according to September data from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac).
