Yicai:

Currently, the action to deepen and enhance the reforms of state-owned enterprises has passed the halfway mark. Could you comment on the effectiveness of this round of reforms? What are the key tasks for the next stage? Thank you.

Wang Hongzhi: 

Thank you for your questions. The reform of state-owned enterprises has always been a topic of concern and interest across all sectors of society, which I touched upon in my opening remarks. Specifically, this action, aimed at deepening and enhancing the reform of SOEs, represents a major arrangement by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China focusing on the roles and missions of state-owned enterprises within the new era. It is highly consistent with the arrangements regarding the reform of state assets and state-owned enterprises made at the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee. At this stage, over half of the scheduled tasks have been completed and the results, thus far, meet our expectations. For a detailed report, I will now turn over to Mr. Lin Qingmiao.

Lin Qingmiao:

I will further introduce some specific details. In our ongoing initiatives to deepen and enhance the reform of state-owned enterprises, we are cohesively advancing both reforms regarding their functions and roles and institutional reforms, fully leveraging the synergy. Reforms of functions and roles are focused on the missions and responsibilities of SOEs in this new era, with the goal of boosting their core functions and competitive strengths. This enables them to make significant contributions in areas like technological innovation, industry control and security support, thereby better aligning with national strategies. Institutional reforms aim to remove the institutional impediments that affect the high-quality development of SOEs, and to rejuvenate their vitality further. The achievements of these deepened and enhanced reform efforts can be summarized in four aspects:

First, the structural layout has been continuously improved. We have thoroughly implemented strategic restructuring and professional integration, enhancing SOEs' capabilities in serving national strategies and improving resource allocation efficiency. We have firmly implemented industrial renewal actions for central SOEs and launched initiatives to develop future-oriented industries. Emerging sectors are thriving, realizing breakthroughs in various fields. Traditional industries have experienced rapid transformation and upgrading to become high-end, smart and eco-friendly. Second, sci-tech innovation capabilities have continued to strengthen. Many enterprises' sci-tech innovation systems have been reshaped and optimized. SOEs' principal role in sci-tech innovation has become more evident. They've achieved breakthroughs in key and core technologies with inspiring sci-tech innovations across diverse fields. For example, the Chang'e-6 mission was the world's first to collect samples from the far side of the moon and return them to Earth, the C919 large passenger aircraft has been commercialized, and the Shenzhen-Zhongshan cross-sea passage has opened to traffic. Third, the modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics has matured. Party committees (leading Party members groups) have effectively provided direction, managed the overall situation and ensured implementation. The development of boards of directors has continuously deepened, with related systems improving, and their capabilities in formulating strategies, making decisions and preventing risks enhanced. Enterprise managers work under the tenure system and contracts, and rewards and punishments are determined strictly according to evaluation results. Market-oriented operating mechanisms have improved. Fourth, regulatory efficiency has further improved. We have carried out industry-specific and enterprise-specific evaluations, making our guidance more targeted. We've enhanced supervision and accountability, coordinating different kinds of supervision to create synergy. 

Looking ahead, we will align and integrate important tasks in deepening and improving SOE reforms with the new missions and tasks assigned by the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee through coordinated implementation. We will focus on enhancing and expanding state-owned capital and enterprises to strengthen their core functions and competitiveness, realizing new breakthroughs with a greater strategic perspective and intensified efforts. We will focus on developing new quality productive forces. In line with national strategic requirements, we will further clarify key investment areas and directions, strengthening our input and planning in research on key and core technologies and forward-looking strategic industries. We will make efforts to enhance development vitality and momentum. We will improve institutional mechanisms for strengthening Party leadership within the context of corporate governance improvement. We will enhance the quality of boards of directors and deepen reforms to the three systems for labor employment management, human resources and distribution to quickly foster new and modern SOEs and create more world-class enterprises. We will focus on improving management and supervision mechanisms and systems. We will lift restrictions while ensuring effective regulation and continuously improve the efficiency of regulation and administrative services. These efforts aim to better protect and develop state-owned assets. Thank you.