Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) is calling for state-owned enterprises to promote mergers and reorganizations to increase the efficiency of their operations, as the nation faces its slowest growth in 25 years.
State-owned enterprises need to deepen reforms with a focus on steady growth and increasing their competitiveness, Li said at a seminar on Friday, which included senior officials.
Officials from the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and executives from companies including China Railway Construction Corp (中國鐵建) were present.
The world’s second-largest economy is set to grow at its slowest pace in a quarter of a century this year even after five central bank interest rate cuts.
Li’s call comes amid an equity-market rout that has wiped US$5 trillion off the nation’s stocks and after a sudden move on Aug. 11 to change the exchange-rate regime, a decision which triggered the yuan’s biggest depreciation in two decades and roiled global markets.
Li also urged state-owned enterprises to dispose of “zombie” companies and those suffering from long-term losses. To foster growth, state-owned enterprises need an innovation-driven development strategy and global collaboration, Li said.
China last week announced long-awaited guidelines to make its bloated state-owned enterprises more efficient as policymakers search for ways of reinvigorating the US$10 trillion economy.
The nation’s leaders had announced their intention to overhaul atate-owmed enterprises at a gathering in 2013 in a move aimed at eliminating waste and boosting their competitiveness.
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