China has vowed strict measures to prevent losses of state assets. Officials in charge say the measures include reforming some of the remaining state-owned enterprises to make them more profitable.

Chairman of China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission Li Rongrong says the reform of Chinese state-owned enterprises has helped improve the quality of state assets in China. But he warns there is still some weak points in the reform that result in the loss of state-owned assets, China Radio International reported Wednesday.

"The major problem in the SOE's reform is concentrated on the SOE's administrative purchase, which means the enterprises themselves purchase what they are going to sell. In order to obtain more profits, they are trying every means to reduce sales price. Therefore, the state-owned assets have suffered great losses."

In 1998, there were a total of 238,000 state-owned enterprises in China. With reforms, the figure has now been reduced to 150,000.

The SOEs have obtained large profits in 2003, 22 times more than five years ago. And the total capital accounts have increased by 35% during the past five years.

In spite of the active role that SOEs reform plays in improving state-owned assets' quality, Li Rongrong says the Chinese Government has begun to adopt programs to prevent the losses of state-owned assets.

"We're planning to strictly separate the function of social public administration from the function of capital-providers and establish state-assets monitoring institution aiming at clarifying the functions of relevant institutions."

The official says, more importantly, although some state-owned enterprises have won profits, they're also loaded with heavy burdens. And these problems also should not be covered up to better prevent state assets losses.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2004)