More private enterprises into nation's top 500
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-09-10 14:35

The list of China's top 500 enterprises for 2004 issued by China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) & China Enterprise Directors Association (CEDA) is a step catching up with the economic globalization as well as serving as a new wind vane for China's economic development.

Statistics show that the aggregate operating turnover of the top 500 approached 9 trillion yuan (US$1.1 trillion), a year-on-year increase of almost 30 percent. Since 2002, the earnings of the 500 grew at an average rate of 20 percent and that of capital four percent. The growth has been on a par with or surpassing their world's top 500.

China's top 500 enterprises are expanding in their overall scale, which indicates that China's economic aggregate has stepped onto a much higher level and laid an economic foundation for nurturing world-class giants, said Chen Qingtai, party secretary of the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC).

Even the operating turnover of the No 500 exceeds 3 billion yuan. Previous figures are 2.5 billion yuan and 2 billion yuan in 2003 and 2002 respectively. Over the three years, the threshold of the top-500 list has been rising at a high rate of 0.5 billion yuan averagely.

The rankings for 2004 also greet 50 enterprises from the western region, exactly one tenth of the total. Although still far behind the east, the west has pushed six more to into the list.

According to CEC vice-chairman Chen Zhong, there is a wide gap between the west and the east, but the west is striving to narrow it. This is a verification of the effect of the "developing the west China" policy.

Private enterprises also standing out in the rankings. Less than 4 percent of the total operating turnover in 2002, the earnings of private enterprises have taken up 15 percent. Well in form, the private enterprises have been expanding themselves in the list in three consecutive years, growing constantly and are weighing more in the national economy.

What is worth mentioning is that eighteen of China's top 500 entered the global tally in 2004, six more than in 2003. State Power Grid Corporation, China's number one, edged into the world's top 50 for the first time. Four manufacturing enterprises: Bao Steel Group, China Faw Group Corporation, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group) and Dong Feng Motor Co, Ltd, join the world's top-500 family hand in hand.

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