China's state sector reform achieves major advancement: official   2002-11-10 16:02:37 China has embarked on a "road of success with Chinese characteristics" in effectively combining public ownership and market economy and promoting the overall development of the state sector, said Li Rongrong, minister in charge of the State Economic and Trade Commission, in Beijing on Sunday. "From the beginning of this year, （China's） state－owned enterprises have continued to maintain a sound development momentum and are expected to make more profits than in the last year," said Li in his opening remarks at a press conference held on the sidelines of the ongoing 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China （CPC）. From 1989 to 2001, the annual average tax revenues from each state－owned enterprise had surged to 7 million RMB yuan （about 942,000 US dollars） from 1 million yuan （121,000 US dollars）, the annual per capita labor productivity in state－owned enterprises to 54,772 yuan （6,599 dollars） from 9,115 yuan （1098 dollars）, and the net value of fixed assets of all state－owned enterprises to 3.9 trillion yuan （476 billion dollars） from 703 billion yuan （84 billion dollars）, said Li. In the past 13 years, while the total number of state－owned industrial enterprises had dwindled sharply from 102,300 to 46,800, the overall profits they made had increased to 238 billion yuan （28 billion dollars） from a mere 74 billion yuan （8.9 billion dollars）, he added. Describing the reform of state－owned enterprises as the "most difficult and most challenging central link" of the entire economic restructuring, Li said that this reform would be further deepened in China's pursuit of a new industrialization model with high technological content, good economic returns, low resources consumption, little pollution and efficient use of human resources. "While continuing to enhance the competitiveness of the state sector, we will also support and guide the non－public sector for a better development in order to create a fine situation in which public and non－public sectors help each other for mutual development," he added. Li will pick up questions on China's industrial restructuring, state－owned enterprises’ reform and market order regulation from foreign and Chinese journalists attending the press conference.