Official calls for cooperation between state, private companies

BEIJING, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Chief of China's state assets regulator has called for closer cooperation between state-owned and private enterprises to facilitate high-quality development of the broader economy.

A prosperous Chinese economy requires joint efforts of enterprises of all types of ownership, Xiao Yaqing, head of state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said in an article published in the newspaper Study Times Wednesday.

While state-owned enterprises (SOEs) play an important role in basic industries and traditional manufacturing, private companies thrive from services and processing industries and have started to enter high-tech and emerging sectors, Xiao said, noting they are highly-complementary and together make up a complete industrial system.

Xiao said a stable Chinese economy provided SOEs and private businesses with ample room to grow and expand cooperation.

China, still a developing economy, remains in the middle of industrialization and boasts an enormous, promising market, Xiao said, adding that there could be much improvement in manufacturing, innovation, urban-rural coordination, and people's livelihoods.

Xiao urged state and private companies, as independent market entities, to cooperate in competition and achieve win-win results.

Progress has been made in such cooperation. private companies invested a total of 1.26 trillion yuan (nearly 190 billion U.S. dollars) in state assets, including through equities transfers, IPOs and asset reorganization, during 2013 to 2018.

In the past two years, more than 2,000 centrally-administered SOEs have undergone controlling-interest transfers and have become entities with privately controlled ownership. And centrally-administered SOEs also cooperated more closely with private companies in investing in high technology, ecological and environmental protection and strategically emerging industries, according to Xiao.