SOEs step up pace of mergers and reorganizations

State-owned enterprises have stepped up the pace of mergers and reorganizations in the past few months to counter downward pressures in the economy, Xu Shaoshi, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said on Wednesday.

During the first six months, mergers and reorganizations of State-owned enterprises grew by 26 percent from a year ago in terms of value, said Xu.

The long-awaited documents on State-owned enterprise reform will be launched gradually, said Xu. The government has worked on a host of SOE reform policies known as "1 plus N" plans, which refer to overall guidelines and detailed support policies.

The SOE reform blueprint has been approved by the central authorities, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said on Monday, but the regulator has yet to specify when it will be released.

Details and policies of the SOE reform need to be launched as soon as possible to give investors clear directions and confidence, Li Daokui, a professor at Tsinghua University, said on the sidelines of the Summer Davos on Wednesday.

Klaus Kleinfeld, president and chief executive officer of Alcoa Inc, a global mining company, said the progress made on SOE reforms has been sluggish.

Executive salary reform is a part of the SOE reforms that has attracted lots of attention, but actually most top executives of SOEs do not care too much on this issue, said Wang Jianzhou, chairman of China Association for Public Companies and former president of China Mobile Communications Corporation.

(China Daily 09/10/2015 page14)