China's state-owned enterprises post 32% rise in profits

BEIJING -- China's state-owned enterprises posted a 31.6 percent rise in 2007 total profits buoyed by a strong economy, the Ministry of Finance said Wednesday.

Total profits reached a record 1.62 trillion yuan (221.9 billion U.S. dollars), from 1.23 trillion yuan a year earlier, said a statement from the ministry.

The 119,000 state-owned enterprises paid a record 1.57 trillion yuan in taxes last year, up 21.8 percent. Their sales revenues grew 20.1 percent to 18 trillion yuan.

State-owned enterprises administered by the central government contributed 67.9 percent of the total profits, or 1.1 trillion yuan, up 29.2 percent. Their sales revenues rose 19.1 percent to 11 trillion yuan.

China has 152 centrally administered enterprises, all under the supervision of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council.

Although the number of such enterprises dropped to about 160 by the end of 2006 from more than 190 in 2002 due to economic restructuring, their total sales jumped 146 percent and profits increased by 219 percent.

Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said last month the government would continue to promote the corporate and share-holding reforms in state-owned enterprises, encourage them to expand overseas and deepen the reforms in monopoly sectors.

It would also "actively boost the participation of the private sector and foreign investment in the share-holding reform of centrally administered enterprises", said SASAC head Li Rongrong.

State-owned enterprises in the machinery industry exceeded all the other sectors in profit growth last year. Their profits soared73.4 percent, followed by the automotive industry with 70.8 percent and the chemical industry with 64.5 percent.