SOEs urged to focus on market reforms

China's central government-administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) should focus on market-oriented reforms so as to cope with challenges amid uncertainties in the global economy, a government official said Sunday.

Huang Shuhe, vice chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said the SOEs should focus their State-owned capital on sectors related to national security or the country's core economic interests, according to a report Sunday by People's Daily.

They should attract private investment to fund their other business interests, Huang said.

SOEs still face challenges, Huang noted, even though they recorded stable growth and steady business expansion during the first six months.

In the first half, SOEs' total revenues reached 11.4 trillion yuan ($1.86 billion), up 9 percent year-on-year and their net profits increased by 20.7 percent year-on-year to 470 billion yuan, "but their costs are still high, equivalent to 95.6 percent of the total sales revenue," said Huang.

SASAC released a notice Wednesday saying that it will launch an investigation into the wages paid to SOE employees, as well as requiring SOEs to submit related surveys by the end of October.

"The income, including housing funds and various forms of commercial insurance, is more than the amount paid at private companies," Xu Hongcai, director of the Department of Information under the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told the Global Times Sunday.