Five state firms in China to be revamped

China has approved turning five state-owned enterprises including China Resources, China Merchants Group and China National Building Material Group into state-owned capital investing and operating companies, the 21st Century Business Herald newspaper reported.

These SOEs will be run on the lines of commercial enterprises and will be given priority for capital, the report said.

The other two SOEs are State Development and Investment Corporation and Baowu.

The government has been rolling out a pilot scheme to reform SOEs since 2014 and the five are among 19 firms in the first batch that have been given the green light for conversion. Other SOEs in the pilot scheme include Cofco, China Poly Group, Cosco Shipping and China General Nuclear Power.