Eleven state-owned enterprises (SOEs) affiliated to China's central government suffered losses totaling 2.52 billion yuan (US$315 million) in the first six months of this year, said the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) on Tuesday.

SASAC Director Li Rongrong told a meeting on Tuesday that the losses suffered by the 11 SOEs were 470 million yuan (US$58.75 million) more than in the same period of last year.

Meanwhile, he said, the 169 central SOEs in all turned over 323.94 billion yuan in taxes to the state coffer from January to June, up 17.3 percent over the same period a year ago.

During the meeting, attended by leading officials of the central SOEs, Li warned that some enterprises still face serious problems, including a fast growth of debts, although the overall economic efficiency improved in the first half of this year.

He urged the central SOEs to deepen reforms, change ways of management, reduce cost and avoid seeking expansion "blindly."

From January to June, the director said, there were 76 central SOEs whose debts grew faster than their assets.

He called on the central SOEs to tap potentials and work out policies to ensure improvement in the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, he noted that the central SOEs achieved 3.74 trillion yuan in sales income in the first six months of the year, an increase of 20 percent year on year. The profits amounted to 351.65 billion yuan, a rise of 16 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2006)