State-owned companies backbones of China's high-quality growth: official

BEIJING - China's State-owned companies have become backbones in the country's pursuit of high-quality economic development over the past decade, an official said Friday.

Value-added output of supervised enterprises by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council amounted to 111.4 trillion yuan ($16.65 trillion) from 2012 to 2021, Weng Jieming, deputy head of SASAC, told a press conference.

The figure logged an annual average increase of 9 percent, which outpaces China's annual average GDP growth by 2.3 percentage points, Weng said.

Total assets of the supervised enterprises reached 259.3 trillion yuan by the end of 2021, 2.6 times that at the end of 2012 and annual growth of 15.4 percent.

While seeking to promote technological strengths, centrally-administered State-owned companies have built an array of signature projects over the past decade, such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Baihetan hydropower station and Hualong One reactor, according to Weng.

In terms of contributing to society, Weng noted that centrally-administered State-owned companies over the past decade have paid a total of 18.2 trillion yuan of taxes and fees, and transferred state assets totaling 1.2 trillion yuan to replenish the social security funds.

They have also pitched in to ease the burdens of small and medium-sized enterprises in the industrial chains by lowering utility bills and rents.