A total of 180 key Beijing-based state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are publicly opening up their businesses to both domestic and overseas investors in Shanghai on Friday.

The act is a step to promote the ongoing reform in Beijing's SOEs, said sources with the city's state asset watchdog.

The 180 enterprises register total gross assets of 30 billion yuan (about US$3.7 billion), according to the deal's operator China Beijing Equity Exchange.

Prior to the Shanghai public show, the SOEs made their debut in Beijing in September, and then were exhibited at overseas trade fairs in the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan, said Xiong Yan, president of the China Beijing Equity Exchange.

Similar public offerings of the 180 SOEs will also be held in Singapore and Hong Kong in November, as well as some other Chinese provinces, said Xiong.

China is striving to reform its SOEs, which are mainly plagued by large debt and undercompetitiveness. The government is trying to set up share-holding structures and improve competitiveness by introducing domestic private and foreign investors.

Among 363 Beijing's SOEs, about 40 percent of the city's SOE-reform target, have completed reform.

The coverage rate is expected to reach 50 percent by the end of the year and 100 percent in 2007, said an official with the Beijing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

By the end of June this year, SOEs in Beijing reaped total sales of 140.7 billion yuan (US$17.4 billion), a year-on-year rise of 14.3 percent, with a net profit of 2.85 billion yuan (US$352.7 million).

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2005)