National Business Daily:

We have noticed that promoting the coordinated development of state-owned and private enterprises is one of the key reform tasks in the new round of deepening SOE reform. Could you please update us on the progress of this initiative? What are the main considerations and plans for the next step? Thank you.

Wang Hongzhi:

Thank you for your questions. Working unswervingly both to consolidate and develop the public sector and to encourage, support and guide development of the non-public sector is an important part of China's fundamental economic systems, and is also a strength of our system. There is a consensus that both SOEs and private enterprises are important entities in our national economy, with each playing a significant, indispensable and irreplaceable role. The SASAC has always placed great importance on the coordinated development of SOEs and private enterprises. Specific work plans have been formulated to guide and promote deep cooperation between SOEs and private enterprises in order for them to learn from each other's strengths and to compensate for each other's weaknesses, fostering mutual promotion and growth. This has achieved positive results. For more details, I will let Mr. Lin Qingmiao provide further information.

Lin Qingmiao:

Further leveraging the leading role of SOEs to promote the coordinated development of state-owned and private enterprises is a key task in deepening SOE reform. It is also an important cornerstone for building a high-level socialist market economy. In recent years, in the process of creating a new pattern of development and promoting high-quality development, we have been solidly advancing mutual promotion and coordinated development between state-owned and private enterprises. This can be summarized into "four cooperations":

The first is cooperation at the capital level. Since the initiative to deepen SOE reform, central SOEs have actively engaged in equity cooperation with private enterprises and other social capital, with amounts exceeding 390 billion yuan. As of now, central SOEs have invested in over 13,000 companies of various types through shareholding, thus achieving significant progress in capital cooperation between state-owned and private enterprises.

The second is cooperation along the industrial chains. Central SOEs have initiated joint actions, collaborating with upstream and downstream enterprises to reinforce and upgrade the weak links in the industrial chains, and to extend and solidify the industrial chains. This initiative drives the coordinated development of over 5,700 business entities. Behind each "chain leader" company there are numerous private enterprises participating and cooperating.

The third is supply chain collaboration. Central SOEs have lowered procurement thresholds and reduced transaction costs during the procurement process, thus strongly supporting the development of the private businesses. Currently, among the more than two million enterprises in the upstream and downstream supply chains that are directly driven by central SOEs, 96% are private small and medium-sized enterprises.

The fourth is cooperation in scientific and technological innovation. In strategic emerging industries and key areas for future-oriented industries, central SOEs have led to the establishment of 24 innovation consortia, collaborating with private enterprises, universities and research institutes to tackle key challenges. We have made breakthroughs in developing a large number of core technologies with independent intellectual property rights in key fields, such as industrial software, industrial mother machines, computing power networks, and new materials, etc. These advancements have made significant contributions to achieving greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology.

Next, we will improve the rules and institutions for cooperation between various enterprises including SOEs and private enterprises, continue to carry out the coordinated development and project promotion and partnering of SOEs and private enterprises, guide SOEs to build a collaborative and win-win supply chain ecosystem, encourage SOEs to expand openness and sharing of innovative resources, give full play to the strength of SOEs, private enterprises and other types of enterprises in resources, and continue to deepen cooperation for common development. Thank you!