China's major state-owned enterprises increased sales and profits during the first nine months as regulators moved to prevent the further loss of public assets.

The 169 state-owned enterprises under the supervision of China's assets watchdog reported sales of 4.8 trillion yuan (US$592 million) in the period, up 23.4 percent year on year, and profits rose 22.4 percent to 463.8 billion yuan, a senior official said yesterday.

Li Rongrong, director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), also predicted these companies will achieve 6.5 trillion yuan in sales this year, up 17 percent from a year ago, and post profits of 590 billion yuan, up 21 percent in annualized terms.

The 169 companies contribute some 60 percent of the tax revenues collected from the country's SOEs, Li noted.

In a statement on the commission's Website, Li also reviewed efforts to protect the state's industrial and commercial interests.

"For every case involving the loss of state assets, we have to find the reason and discover who's responsible," he said.

Fines and other punishments are being handed out to those whose criminal behavior results in asset losses and also to those who fail to fulfill their duties, the official said.

China calculates that as mush as 352 billion yuan in state asset were lost last year.

Property and investment losses accounted for a large part of the total, which can be retrieved by effective investigative action, Li noted.

The asset watchdog has urged state enterprise chiefs to speed up the transformation of non-performing assets and develop firm timetables — the chief measures for preventing further problems.

The commission ordered all state companies under its supervision to finish disposal work on non-performing assets by the end of 2006, or else face special scrutiny by asset management institutions.

Meanwhile, the number of state-owned companies has declined to fewer than 30,000 in the wake of reforms involving the supervision system for state-owned assets.

(Shanghai Daily November 8, 2005)