China's state-owned enterprises receive no subsidies for ownership sake: official

BEIJING -- China's state-owned enterprises (SOE) do not receive any subsidies for the sake of their ownership, and no Chinese laws make any special stipulation on subsidies to SOEs, an official said in an interview with Xinhua.

Weng Jieming, vice chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), made the remarks, noting the commission had conducted special research on the issue of subsidies.

"China's SOEs are independent market players. It is entirely up to them to make their own business decisions, and they are responsible for any profits or losses," Weng said.

As for industrial development strategies, he said they have been widely used in the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea as a policy tool to achieve economic development targets.

Over the past five years, 84 countries generating around 90 percent of the world's total gross domestic product have established clear-cut industrial development strategies, Weng noted.

The official said that relevant government departments of China were investigating and regulating industrial subsidies so as to foster an equitable market environment for enterprises of various ownership types and sizes.

Continued efforts will be made to deepen the reform of SOEs and support enterprises of various types of ownership to participate in market competition in a fair way, said Weng.

In addition, the government will also order SOEs to strictly abide by laws both at home and abroad, said Weng.