China Says Privatization to Continue

More Chinese state-owned companies might be spun off as private entities to help improve economic growth but Beijing will keep control of major industries, a Cabinet official said Thursday.

Regulators are working on plans to overhaul ownership following last month’s Communist Party pledge to increase competition in state-dominated industries, said Huang Shuhe, deputy chairman of the panel that controls China’s biggest government companies.

Economists say Beijing must curb the dominance of state companies that control swathes of the economy, from banking to oil to steel production, or risk seeing China’s growth rate plunge. The development blueprint issued last month pledges to open more industries to competition, though it said state ownership will remain the core of the economy.

Huang gave no details of which companies or industries might be affected. The 117 companies controlled by the Cabinet range from areas regarded by many countries as strategic, such as oil or telecommunications, to a travel agency and a food processor. They include oil giant PetroChina Ltd., phone carrier China Mobile Ltd. and four of the world’s biggest banks.
“State-owned industries that don’t require state ownership can allow more ‘social capital’,” said Huang at a news conference, using the ruling party’s euphemism for private investment. “State ownership could be reduced or entirely withdrawn.”

via Mainichi

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza