China's centrally administered state firms report double-digit profit growth in 2017

BEIJING - China's centrally administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) on Monday reported double-digit growth in business revenues and profits last year.

The SOEs supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) made a total of 1.4 trillion yuan ($216.8 billion) in profit, up 15.2 percent.

Total revenue of the centrally administered SOEs was up 13.3 percent to 26.4 trillion yuan in 2017.

China currently has 98 centrally administered SOEs, down from 117 five years ago as the central government has been restructuring central SOEs to improve their efficiency and competitiveness.

A series of reforms have changed their share-holding structure, spinning off non-core assets and encouraging innovation.

According to Xiao Yaqing, head of the SASAC, China had basically completed corporate governance reform of central SOEs by the end of 2017.