Economy

China tightens supervision on overseas assets

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-28 06:42

BEIJING - The regulator of China's State-owned assets on Monday announced new measures to supervise assets owned by centrally-administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) overseas amid "increasing complexities."

The measures, unveiled by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), aim to stop management loopholes and improve the safety of SOEs' overseas assets.

"We have weakness when supervising those SOE assets overseas," SASAC acknowledged in a statement on its website.

SASAC said the management of overseas assets was slack with insufficient risk control measures among some SOEs, as compared to their emphasis on overseas investments.

The SASAC new regulatory measures standardize individual equity holdings on behalf of SOEs, which used to easily lead to losses of assets overseas.

The new measures also tighten supervision of offshore companies set by centrally-administered SOEs, as well as the remuneration of employees sent overseas,

The net profit of the 122 centrally-administrated State-owned enterprises (SOEs) rose 40.2 percent year-on-year to 848.98 billion yuan ($128.95 billion) in 2010.

In 2009, SOEs' overseas assets make up 19 percent of their total assets while profits made in foreign markets accounted for 37 percent of the total, according to SASAC.