China welcomes foreign enterprises to take part in the country’s mixed-ownership reform, top officials said, as the latest batch of state-owned enterprises to implement the reforms is set to be announced. Xiao Yaqing, Chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said: “We welcome companies of all ownership types, as well as foreign companies, to participate in China’s SOEs mixed-ownership reform.” So far, the first two batches of SOEs, totaling 19, are implementing mixed-ownership reforms. They covered key areas such as power, oil and gas, railways, civil aviation, and the military industry.

“We are currently conducting research on the third batch of mixed-ownership reform pilots, which is expected to be issued soon,” said Peng Huagang, Deputy Secretary General of SASAC.

Nineteen central SOE groups in the power, petroleum, natural gas, railways, airlines, telecommunications, and the military have been identified to carry trials in mixed ownership. There are now only 98 SOEs directly managed by the central government. Since 2013, over 30 central SOEs have been restructured. Central SOEs saw the strongest-ever growth both in revenue and profits for the January-August period, with a 15.7% increase in business revenue and a 17.3% rise in total profit.