The State Council executive meeting on Nov 29 stressed efforts to supervise State-owned enterprises (SOEs), and urged the board of supervisors to take more measures to ensure that State-owned assets are protected and appreciated, and the efficiency of SOEs is improved.

The meeting reviewed a report on the annual inspection of SOEs from the board of supervisors sent by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council.

The board has inspected the 5,684 central SOEs and their main subsidiaries, revealing 12,200 problems and issues from the past three years, data from the report showed. Most of the SOEs have actively improved, and managed to end the turnover decline in September and October through downsizing and restructuring, which contributed to a stabilizing economy, the report said.

However, it warned of the risks of capital losses caused by budgetary and operational violations, and internal control systems of SOEs.

To strengthen external supervision, the meeting stressed the need to pay attention to crucial issues in central SOEs’ decision-making and operations, improve the supervision of overseas State-owned capital and perfect the reward and punishment mechanism.

Industry insiders said the requirements of the State Council followed the actual development situation, and would enable the board of supervisors to better implement the supervision tasks. Central SOEs’ assets have become a major target of supervision as Chinese enterprises speed up the “going global” process.

To further improve the supervision, the assets supervision commission also established three new offices to check, deal with and supervise the problems revealed by the board of supervisors.

The series of measures will further strengthen the supervision of SOEs and enable the board of supervisors to play a bigger role in preventing losses in State-owned assets, said Wang Wenbin, vice-chairman of SASAC, previously.