SHANGHAI, April 12 (Reuters) - China will soon release
details of ambitious ownership reform plans at central
government-owned firms, including telecom giant China Unicom and
China Eastern Airlines, the official Xinhua news
agency said on Wednesday.
China's long-awaited mixed ownership reforms will allow
private capital to invest in firms run directly by the central
government, and are part of an ambitious revamp of the country's
sclerotic and debt-ridden state sector.
The central government currently owns and administers 102
enterprises in sectors ranging from nuclear technology to
medicine.
China Unicom's Hong Kong listed subsidiary said
last week that its main state shareholder was currently
reviewing its ownership structure.
Xinhua said the first round of pilot reforms would also
involve the China Southern Power Grid and the China Shipbuilding
Industry Corporation, and a second round would begin later this
year, extending reforms to more industrial sectors.
China made mixed ownership reform one of its priorities
during a meeting of the Central Economic Work Conference late
last year.
It said in its government work report published at the
beginning of the full session of parliament in March that
"substantive progress" would be made this year on mixed
ownership reforms in key sectors like electric power, oil and
gas, railways, civil aviation and defence.
Xiao Yaqing, the head of the State-Owned Assets Supervision
and Administration Commission (SASAC), told a media briefing
last month that he expected major breakthroughs this year, but
he stressed that it would not be appropriate for every single
state firm.
(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman)