A total of 462 companies have completed or initiated share reform in China's two securities markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen By Jan. 20, 2006, a senior official said Monday.

 

Of these companies, 284 are listed companies held by local state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and 46 others held by the central SOEs, said Li Rongrong, director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

 

SASAC will enhance its guidance on 39 major central SOEs this year to inspire their share reform, and local state-owned assets administrations should also focus on SOEs with large-scale shares in the reform, Li said at a national work conference on state-owned assets management.

 

"The share reform is facing a host of in-depth problems," Li said, acknowledging that new methods are to be explored on the basis of market stability and protection of the legal rights of the investors, especially public investors.

 

Li also said the share reform should respect the share holders' views and be proceeded step by step, and supervision on the flow of state-owned share should be stepped up so as to stem illegal transactions behind the scene.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2006)