China will foster new growth drivers in areas of development for
regional integration, 5G and digital technologies in its State-owned
enterprises during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) to create a new
pattern of high-quality development, said government and SOE officials. They made the comments after the State-owned Assets Supervision and
Administration Commission of the State Council announced on Monday that
both prally-administered SOEs and State-controlled firms will focus
on regional coordinated development strategies-such as the
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei
region and the Yangtze River Delta region-to realize more potential from
these regions' comparative advantages and resource endowments to seek
new growth drivers. The government will promote the adjustment of the industrial
structure and enhance the stability and competitiveness of the
industrial and supply chains. This is primarily to promote the
deployment of SOEs in key links of the industrial and supply chains, as
well as the high-end manufacturing sector, said Weng Jieming,
vice-chairman of the SASAC. In addition to supporting selected companies to carry out mergers,
acquisitions and other types of professional integration, the SASAC said
SOEs will be encouraged to form more partnerships with private
companies-in particular small and medium-sized enterprises-to further
boost compatible innovation among them. "Guided by mutually beneficial market operations, SOEs will actively
enhance all-round cooperation with them, serving as a national team in
stabilizing the industrial chain over the long run," Weng said. Through industrial funds, equity purchases and other methods, pral
SOEs have invested more than 400 billion yuan ($59.76 billion) in over
6,000 private companies since 2013. Meanwhile, the SASAC guided pral
SOEs to reinforce management and become active shareholders after
investment, strictly regulate transactions and promote information
disclosure. To better respond to the government's call to participate in the
country's coordinated regional development, China Southern Power Grid Co
Ltd, which supplies electricity to the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region
and the provinces of Guangdong, Yunnan, Guizhou and Hainan, plans to
invest more than 170 billion yuan in power grid construction in the
Pearl River Delta region between 2018 and 2022. Based on the power grid, the Guangzhou-based pral SOE intends to
build an international standard smart power grid in the Guangdong-Hong
Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, or GBA, by 2030 and aims to help build the
area into a vigorous international urban agglomeration, a main hub of
the Belt and Road Initiative, a cooperation demonstration zone between
the Chinese mainland, Macao and Hong Kong, as well as an area ideal for
living, traveling and working. "Our power supply unit in Hengqin in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, is
now improving the power grid in Hengqin in order to realize a quick
power recovery within 300 milliseconds so that only two households at
most would be impacted by a blackout," said Meng Zhenping, the company's
chairman. Meng said the company will continue to improve the urban and rural
power transmission and distribution network in the entire province, and
is aiming to build a highly reliable power supply demonstration zone in
three locations: Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, Qianhai of
Shenzhen and the Hengqin New Area in Zhuhaiall of which are in Guangdong
province. The power grid constructor and operator sold 1,051.8 Terawatt-hours
of electricity, generating revenue of $81.2 billion in 2019, with total
assets reaching $133.2 billion. As China's new economic development pattern of "dual
circulation"-first put forward in Mayrelies on domestic circulation to
drive its international circulation and promotes deeper and wider
opening-up, China Post Group Corp, another pral SOE with nearly 1
million employees, launched a nationwide e-commerce festival to build an
e-commerce ecosystem in the country's rural areas last month. Domestic circulation, or the internal cycle of production,
distribution and consumption, will be the mainstay of economic
development while the domestic market is integrated with international
circulation to promote the smooth twoway flow of goods and capital, said
the Ministry of Commerce. Unlike other major online shopping festivals such as the Double 11
shopping carnival (Nov 11) and the 618 Midyear Shopping Festival, China
Post will take advantage of its direct access to rural areas and provide
services-including agricultural materials and technologies, warehousing
and logistics-to farmers' cooperatives across the country to further
help them sell their products and conduct poverty alleviation
activities, said Liu Aili, chairman of China Post. The company has already made a plan to help farmers earn more through
e-commerce business during the 14th Five-Year Plan, including building
online pavilions in national level poverty-stricken areas, advising and
helping farmers to grow marketable products, and train more people with
new skills.
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