The reporter learned from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission that Li Zhiqun, a representative of the 19th National Congress and chairperson of the supervisory board of key state-owned enterprises of the State Council, recently talked about the progress of the reform of central enterprises, saying that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, six reform measures such as improving the modern enterprise system, reforming the operating mechanism, optimizing the layout of state-owned assets, promoting quality and efficiency, strengthening the supervision of state-owned assets, and comprehensively and strictly governing the party have continued to deepen. Among them, in terms of market-oriented salary reform, 99% of central enterprise group companies have established a clear wage-benefit linkage mechanism, and 60 listed companies have implemented equity incentives. He also introduced that significant progress has been made in the reform of the corporate system, and 69 group companies and more than 2,600 subordinate enterprises will

"Promoting central enterprises to continuously improve the modern enterprise system is an important guarantee for enterprises to form an effective decision-making mechanism of checks and balances and enhance the driving force for development," Li Zhiqun said. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the classification reform has been solidly advanced. Central enterprises are divided into three categories: commercial state-owned enterprises whose main business is in fully competitive industries and fields, commercial state-owned enterprises whose main business is in important industries and key fields related to national security and the lifeblood of the national economy, and commercial state-owned enterprises (commercial second category) and public welfare. He pointed out that the classification reform, classification assessment, classification development, and classification supervision have been comprehensively promoted, and the guiding role of classification has gradually emerged. The positioning of enterprises with different functional classifications has become clearer, and the overall integration of state-owned enterprises and the market economy has been promoted.

In addition, significant progress has been made in corporate reform. "69 group companies and more than 2,600 subordinate enterprises will complete the restructuring work within the year," Li Zhiqun mentioned. At the end of 2016, 290 class A shares (including A + H) controlled by central enterprises accounted for 39.3% of the operating income and 30.07% of the class A share market. "Listed companies have played an important role in capital market financing, promoting mechanism transformation and strategic restructuring." In addition, he said, the role of the board of directors in the corporate governance of state-owned enterprises is also becoming more and more important. The effective check and balance mechanism of the board of directors has been initially formed, which has significantly improved the quality of major decision-making and the role of risk prevention and control. According to him, among the 98 central enterprises, 83 have established a standardized board of directors with a majority of external directors, and nearly half of the second-level wholly state-owned and wholly-owned companies of central enterprises have established boards of directors. Four central enterprise groups have also carried out the implementation of the pilot work of the powers of the board of directors of central enterprises, awarding six powers, including manager selection and salary distribution.

At the level of deepening the reform of the operating mechanism, Li Zhiqun said that in the past few years, central enterprises have carried out active exploration on the reform of the operating mechanism, which has stimulated the vitality of the enterprise. Among them, the reform of the salary system has become a bright spot. "99% of the central enterprise group companies have established a clear wage-benefit linkage mechanism, 60 listed companies have implemented equity incentives, and 11 science and technology subsidiaries have implemented dividend incentive policies," Li Zhiqun said. The salary system for the heads of central enterprises has also been gradually standardized, achieving appropriate levels, reasonable structures, standardized management and effective supervision. Corresponding to market-oriented salary, there is also a market-oriented employment system. Li Zhiqun told reporters that the coverage rate of the open recruitment system of central enterprises has reached 98%, and the employment contract should be signed to 100%. In addition, measures such as the classification and stratification of leaders in state-owned enterprises and the exploration of the professional manager system have been accelerated. "These efforts have promoted enterprises to establish a reasonable flow mechanism in which cadres can go up and down, employees can enter and leave, and income can increase and decrease, which has greatly stimulated the vitality of various elements within the enterprise," Li Zhiqun said.

In terms of optimizing the structure of state-owned capital layout, Li Zhiqun said that in recent years, the optimization of the structure of state-owned capital has effectively improved the efficiency of resource allocation. In Li Zhiqun's view, while the central enterprises enhance their influence through horizontal merger and vertical integration, and give play to the synergy effect, they integrate homogeneous business through equity cooperation and asset replacement to optimize the resource allocation of central enterprises. Taking the tower company as an example, the establishment of the company reduces the repeated construction of towers 568,000, saves investment 100.30 billion yuan, and saves land 27,700 mu.

After several years of reform, the asset scale of central enterprises has reached 53.80 trillion yuan, double that of 2012. With a stable foundation, there must be more kinetic energy and qualitative improvement. So, where does the driving force and qualitative improvement come from? "Only by improving quality and efficiency can we consolidate the development potential of central enterprises."

Li Zhiqun said that under the concept of innovation-driven development, central enterprises have built national-level R & D institutions and collaborative innovation platforms. R & D funds account for 1/4 of the national R & D funds, and an innovation guidance fund with a scale of 150 billion yuan has been established to drive more than 200 innovation funds. The total scale exceeds 600 billion yuan. At the same time, central enterprises also focus on reducing costs and deleveraging to improve the development space of enterprises.

The fifth area of reform measures is to strengthen the supervision of state-owned assets. Xiao Yaqing, a representative of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said that the marketization of the operating mechanism of central enterprises and the marketization of restructuring and integration have put forward higher requirements for state-owned assets supervision. "To weave a tight'safety net 'of state-owned assets, we must implement the requirements of strengthening the supervision of state-owned assets by focusing on capital management, and strengthen the pertinence, effectiveness and systematization of state-owned assets supervision," Li Zhiqun The reporter learned that since 2015, the SASAC has issued a total of 27 institutional documents aimed at strengthening supervision, and has cooperated with the board of supervisors and business departments "one after the other" to form a closed-loop supervision of finding problems, classifying disposal, supervising rectification, and accountability. At the same time, it has strengthened the supervision of key areas such as the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, property rights transactions, investment mergers and acquisitions, material procurement and bidding.

"Comprehensive and strict strengthening of party building provides a strong guarantee for the sustainable and healthy development of enterprises." Li Zhiqun said that 98 central enterprises have all completed the party building requirements and entered the charter, and all have realized the "one shoulder" of the party secretary (party group) and chairperson, so as to achieve the deep integration of party leadership and corporate governance.

Reform is the foundation to stimulate the vitality of enterprises. The continuous deepening of the above-mentioned reforms has effectively promoted the structural optimization, transformation and upgrading of central enterprises, provided strong momentum for the development of enterprises, vigorously improved the quality and efficiency of enterprise development, and effectively played the role of reform in promoting development and releasing dividends.

Li Jin, chief researcher at the China Enterprise Research Institute, told reporters that the current development of central enterprises is obviously more focused on the quality of development. Focusing on the goal of accelerating the conversion of old and new kinetic energy, the revenue of high-end manufacturing, scientific research, modern service industries and other industries of central enterprises has increased by 24.1% in the past five years. "The supply-side structural reform has achieved remarkable results. By giving full play to the power of the market, it has finally helped state-owned enterprises gradually find new profit growth points," Li Jin said. The various reform measures guided by the supply-side structural reform have introduced the development of state-owned enterprises into a new cycle and released extremely significant reform dividends.