China merges more central SOEs to raise competitiveness

BEIJING - China said Monday it has approved the restructuring of three centrally-administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Sinolight Corporation and China National Arts and Crafts (Group) Corporation (CNACGC) will be merged into China Poly Group Corporation and become the latter's wholly-owned subsidiaries, according to a statement from the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

Sinolight and CNACGC will no longer be directly supervised by the SASAC after the merger, the statement said.

This will bring the number of central SOEs down to 99, sharply down from 196 in 2003.

The SASAC has long aimed to reduce the number of central SOEs to under 100 as it accelerated restructuring and reforms to make SOEs more efficient and competitive.

China has completed mergers between 30 central SOEs since late 2012.

Sinolight was formed after the merger of three central SOEs, with primary business including development of light industry raw materials and products.

CNACGC was established after the merger of two central SOEs and engages in the production and trade of arts and crafts materials.

Poly Group is a conglomerate on the Fortune Global 500 list with business covering international trade, real estate, culture, civilian explosives production and investment in resource exploitation.