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SOEs image & reality

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-04 15:10

How to improve the image of big State-owned enterprises (SOEs) has become a matter of concern for the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) when scandals involving some of these enterprises under its auspices have been exposed one after another.

Squandering of public money in headquarters building refurbishment and purchase of a lot of commercial houses at lower prices for employees have put in the limelight two petroleum giants - China Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Some other SOEs are exposed to be on the list of bribery cases under US judicial investigation.

However, a SASAC deputy director's suggestion for management of public opinion by improving and strengthening the information release mechanism of SOEs is vague on what it proposes to do about the matter.

If he means to have a better spokesperson system for these SOEs to tell the truth about their status or dispel misunderstandings from the public, then there is hope that the SOEs will learn how to operate in the interest of the State and the general public.

Most of these SOEs as listed companies are actually owned not only by the State but also by those who hold their shares. In the broadest sense, SOEs are owned by all citizens of this country. In this sense, citizens are entitled to question any SOE about whatever they believe to be problematic about it.

As far as these scandals are concerned, the right thing to do for the SOEs involved is to come clean and tell the whole truth. For the SASAC, which is supposed to be the patron of big SOEs, the best way to keep up public confidence in these enterprises is to conduct thorough investigation of the scandals and punish those who are responsible according to rules.

Given their powerful monopoly status, most big SOEs are too arrogant to care about how they impact public opinion. They believe that they are entitled to enjoy favorable policies from the central government and their employees, too, are entitled to higher-than-average income and other privileges that non-SOEs or smaller SOEs can never get.

In this context, it is even more necessary for the general public to know the whole truth about the scandals clouding their image. The public is also entitled to know whether those who are found responsible are duly punished. It would do no good to the building of a harmonious society to let the general public gain the impression that big SOEs get favorable treatment because of their bigger contributions to the State coffer.

Related readings:  Decline slows in profits of China's central SOEs  In realty, SOEs play speculative games  SOEs property play  How much can SOEs spend on renovation?

To let these big SOEs cover up their scandals or even to help them do so will not contribute to their own development in the least. It is also unfair to other non-State owned firms, which contribute less to the public exchequer, simply because they do not enjoy monopoly positions.

We hope what the SASAC will do to strengthen these SOEs' information release mechanism is not just to spin public opinion in favor of the SOEs but also increase the transparency of their operations and functioning. Only then can big SOEs develop in a healthy manner.