The Chinese Government's New Approach to Ownership and Financial Control of Strategic State-Owned Enterprises, BOFIT Discussion Papers, No
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A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Mattlin, Mikael Working Paper The Chinese government's new approach to ownership and financial control of strategic state- owned enterprises BOFIT Discussion Papers, No. 10/2007 Provided in Cooperation with: Bank of Finland, Helsinki Suggested Citation: Mattlin, Mikael (2007) : The Chinese government's new approach to ownership and financial control of strategic state-owned enterprises, BOFIT Discussion Papers, No. 10/2007, ISBN 978-952-462-867-9, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition (BOFIT), Helsinki, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:NBN:fi:bof-201408071941 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/212601 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. 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The paper examines the reform of the central government's relationship with key SOEs as a consequence of the establishment of the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) in 2003, the coming introduc- tion of a centralised operating and budgeting system for SOEs, and the government's ongo- ing re-evaluation of its ownership policy. SASAC appears to have the potential to develop into a major actor in China's domestic capital allocation, with an active role in strategic fi- nancing and restructuring of key sectors of the Chinese economy. The data reviewed for this paper strongly suggests that the Chinese central government aims to retain significant ownership control over key SOEs and, by extension, over a major part of the domestic economy. The new operating and budgeting system is set to significantly enhance central government control over SOEs' capital allocation. Key words: State-owned enterprises, privatisation, corporate governance, China JEL classification: G32, G38, P26, P31 1 The research for this report was done during a visiting research period at BOFIT, June-October 2006. The author would like to thank Iikka Korhonen, Tuuli Koivu, Matti Nojonen and Juuso Kaaresvirta for helpful comments to earlier versions of this paper, and Jouko Rautava, Xing Yuqing and Max Jussila for general discussions on the topic. 5 Mikael Mattlin The Chinese government's new approach to ownership and financial control of strategic state-owned enterprises Mikael Mattlin The Chinese government's new approach to ownership and financial control of strategic state-owned enterprises Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan Kiinan valtion omistajapolitiikkaa uusien säädösten ja viime- aikaisten politiikanmuutosten valossa. Keskushallinnon ja keskeisten valtionyhtiöiden suh- de on muuttumassa vuonna 2003 perustetun valtioneuvoston valtionomistuksen valvonta- ja hallintakomission (SASAC), tulevan keskitetyn valtionyhtiöiden toiminta- ja budjetoin- tijärjestelmän ja meneillään olevan omistajapolitiikan uudelleenarvioinnin seurauksena. Kiinan sisäisissä pääomien kohdentamispäätöksissä valtionomistuksen valvonta- ja hallin- takomissiosta näyttäisi kehittyvän merkittävä toimija, jolla on aktiivinen rooli keskeisten valtionyhtiöiden strategisessa rahoituksessa ja avaintoimialojen uudelleenjärjestelyissä. Tätä keskustelualoitetta varten koottu aineisto viittaa vahvasti siihen, että Kiinan valtio pyrkii omistajapolitiikallaan säilyttämään vahvan omistuksen keskeisissä valtionyhtiöissä ja sitä kautta myös vahvan roolin valtiontaloudessa. Uuden toiminta- ja budjetointijärjes- telmän myötä keskushallinnon määräysvalta strategisten valtionyhtiöiden pääomien koh- dentamisiin näyttäisi kasvavan merkittävästi. Asiasanat: valtionyhtiöt, yksityistäminen, yritysten hallintakäytäntö, Kiina JEL: G32, G38, P26, P31 6 BOFIT- Institute for Economies in Transition BOFIT Discussion Papers 10/ 2007 Bank of Finland 1 Introduction Despite three decades of economic reforms in the People's Republic of China (PRC), re- structuring of large state-owned enterprise groups has proceeded at a slow pace in recent years. While a variety of different measures and reform models have been tried since the 1980s,