Business
Market Watch NO. 40, 2015
  ·  2015-09-25  ·   Source: NO. 40 OCTOBER 1, 2015

OPINION 

The 'Second Revolution' of State-Owned Financial Institutions 

A new chapter reforming state-owned enterprises (SOEs) recently began after guidelines were released by the Central Government. Although the guidelines mainly target SOEs in the real economy, they are expected to trigger a second wave of reforms among SOEs in the financial sector.

According to the guidelines, the SOE reform aims at strengthening the competence, improving the structure and enlarging the scale of SOEs. Essential tasks include advancing the reform of SOEs based on their classification, improving the modern corporate system, enhancing the management system of state-owned assets and promoting mixed ownership.

The most important aspect of promoting mixed ownership is that the government will allow non-state capital to participate in SOE reform, encourage state capital to purchase shares of non-SOEs and explore the employee stock ownership plan in mixed ownership enterprises.

Therefore, the "second revolution" of financial SOEs should also focus on introducing private investors, exploring the employee stock ownership plan and advancing mixed ownership reform.

Including both state and private investors, mixed ownership is suitable to the current ownership structure in China and is an effective way to revitalize the economy.

Mixed ownership has become an important organizational form of SOEs around the world. Among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development members, New Zealand and France offer good examples of mixed ownership reform.

During the 15th CPC National Congress held in 1997, the CPC Central Committee proposed to carry out a joint stock reform of SOEs, with the aim of enhancing the mainstay position of public ownership in the economy so it can better guide the private sector.

In 2013, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed the development of a mixed economy and the promotion of a modern corporate system for SOEs. A mixed economy with cross holding by and mutual fusion between state-owned capital, collective capital and private capital is considered an important way to materialize the basic economic system of China. It is conducive to improving the amplification function of state-owned capital, ensuring the appreciation of its value and raising its competitiveness. It also enables capital with all kinds of ownership to draw on one another's strong points to offset weaknesses, stimulate one another and develop together.

Some analysts think if the mixed ownership reform is successful, it will significantly improve the business efficiency and performance of financial SOEs and will unleash the vitality of new businesses. As the top-down design of SOE reform is released, mixed ownership reform of financial SOEs and mixed operations of state-owned financial institutions will have a blueprint to refer to, and the corporate governance structure of financial SOEs is expected to improve.

Reform of financial SOEs must focus on three core issues.

First, it should reform equity structure. The next step of financial SOE reform should now stress introducing multiple types of investors and diversifying the equity structure of financial SOEs. During this process, state shareholders should gradually reduce the proportion of their shares while maintaining their position of control.

Second, it should allow a mixed operation of financial institutions as soon as possible. The government should allow a financial institution to engage in multiple types of financial businesses, including banking, securities, insurance, trusts, investment funds, etc.

Once commercial banks are lifted from investment restrictions, they can perform functions of investment banking, trust and fund management, which, in theory, can reduce the financing costs of the real economy. Moreover, commercial banks can participate in the reform of SOEs, purchase SOE shares, participate in the reorganization of SOEs and improve corporate governance. While reducing the debt ratio of SOEs, financial SOEs can also ensure the safety of their own assets.

Third, it should steadily advance the employee stock ownership plan and adopt a market-based employment and compensation system.

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee allowed mixed ownership companies to implement the employee stock ownership plan. Listed banks, particularly state-owned joint stock banks, have no obstacles blocking implementation. Commercial banks and other financial SOEs should launch at the appropriate time or improve their employee stock ownership plans, so that their employees can share the fruits of the reform of state-owned banks and play a better supervisory role. As for the compensation system, all professional managers or clerks hired in a market-based manner must be paid according to a market-based compensation system.

This is an edited excerpt from an article written by Wang Yong, a professor with Zhengzhou Training College of the People's Bank of China, and published in Securities Times 

NUMBERS 

$123.12 bln 

Revised outbound direct investment from China in 2014, up 14.2 percent from 2013

2 tln yuan 

Transaction value of cross-border e-commerce trade in the first half of the year, up 42.8 percent year on year and accounting for 17.3 percent of China's total foreign trade

1.6 tln yuan 

China's online retail sales in the first half of 2015, surging 48.7 percent year on year and accounting for 11.4 percent of total retail sales

417 mln  

The number of online shoppers in China as of the end of June 2015; in contrast, there were 350 million at the end of June 2014

$44.7 bln  

The brand value of Tencent, making it the year's Most Valuable Chinese Brand on a list released by the Hurun Institute

153 

Polluting and energy-consuming factories that Shanghai authorities have ordered to close by the end of next year near Shanghai Disney Resort

$67 mln  

Amount of money that U.S. chip giant Intel has decided to invest in eight Chinese tech companies that are mainly involved in cutting-edge fields including smart devices, robots, the Internet of Things, cloud services, big data and data analysis

10.4% 

Year-on-year value-added increase of China's hi-tech manufacturing sector in the first eight months of the year, outpacing industrial growth by 4.1 percentage points

Copyedited by Jordyn Dahl

Comments to yushujun@bjreview.com

China
Opinion
World
Business
Lifestyle
Video
Multimedia
 
China Focus
Documents
Special Reports
 
About Us
Contact Us
Advertise with Us
Subscribe
Partners: China.org.cn   |   China Today   |   China Pictorial   |   People's Daily Online   |   Women of China   |   Xinhua News Agency   |   China Daily
CGTN   |   China Tibet Online   |   China Radio International   |   Global Times   |   Qiushi Journal
Copyright Beijing Review All rights reserved 京ICP备08005356号 京公网安备110102005860