State-owned assets up 8.7%
( 2001-07-27 11:54 ) (1 )

State-owned assets at the end of last year were 9.8859 trillion yuan (US$1.194 trillion), up 8.7 per cent from 1999, the official Financial News reported on Thursday.

Operating state assets reached 6.8612 trillion yuan at the end of 2000, making up 69.4 per cent of the total, the newspaper quoted Finance Ministry data as showing.

Assets in large-sized state firms were worth 4.1292 trillion yuan, accounting for 60.2 per cent of the operating state assets, it said.

State assets had been boosted by more government investment in infrastructure and ''a significant improvement in operating efficiency of state-owned enterprises'', it said.

China is restructuring its ailing state firms to reduce its role in the economy and has moved to sell some government asset to help finance its under-funded social security system.