In January this year, China Power Construction achieved new contracts of 103.453 billion yuan, an increase of more than 15%; In the same period, China Datang power generation increased by nearly 26% year-on-year, effectively promoting the orderly and high-quality construction of 193 power projects to accelerate... The reporter learned from a number of central enterprises that in terms of market development, project construction, etc., state-owned central enterprises have ushered in a good start this year.

Industry insiders pointed out that central enterprises continue to release investment momentum, which has played an all-round driving role in economic development. With the strengthening of the New Year, it will continue to be an effective stabilizer and ballast for the national economy. At the same time, the development of strategic emerging industries this year will become the top priority of the work of state-owned central enterprises.

Fixed-asset investment by central enterprises grew by double digits last year

According to data released by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council recently, in 2023, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council promoted central enterprises to actively expand effective investment, prevent investment risks, and the investment scale was stable and advanced. In 2023, central enterprises completed a total investment of 6.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.9%. Among them, the investment in fixed assets (including real estate) was 5.09 trillion yuan, up by 11.4% year on year; Overseas investment increased by 15.5% year-on-year.

Last year, central enterprises invested 3.3 trillion yuan in petroleum and petrochemical industries, power grids, metallurgy and non-ferrous metals, and telecommunications enterprises, up 9.3% year on year, accounting for 53.2% of the total investment. Among them, power grid enterprises focused on energy security and green low-carbon transformation, and accelerated the construction of key projects such as new energy bases, and the investment increased by 16% year-on-year. Petroleum and petrochemical enterprises focused on increasing storage and production, and stepped up exploration and development efforts, which effectively supported domestic crude oil output of 208 million tons and natural gas production of 230 billion cubic meters.

Industry insiders pointed out that the double-digit growth of fixed asset investment by central enterprises has a positive impact on economic development, and effectively plays an all-round driving role in expanding domestic demand, stabilizing growth, boosting confidence and ensuring employment. As strategic emerging industries and future industries become the main positions for central enterprises to develop new quality productivity, it will strongly promote state-owned central enterprises to focus on the main business, develop the real economy, and actively expand effective investment.

Yuan Ye, deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, said that in the next stage of development, central enterprises should focus more on high-quality development, and focus on enhancing value creation ability in the process of focusing on high-quality development. By increasing economic added value, optimizing capital investment and distribution, curbing blind investment impulses, reducing the occupation of inefficient and ineffective capital, and generating more profitable income and profits with operating cash flow. At the same time, by increasing the proportion of revenue and added value of strategic emerging industries, enterprises are encouraged to speed up the shift to innovation-driven connotation growth, and effectively play a leading role in accelerating the formation of new quality productivity and enhancing new growth drivers.

Progress has been made on several projects

Just after the Spring Festival, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council held an expanded meeting of the Party committee. The meeting pointed out that the work in 2024 should be solidly done, and the central enterprises should play a better role in scientific and technological innovation, industrial control, and security support. We will coordinate high-quality development and high-level security, guide and promote central enterprises to further highlight value creation, optimize the structural adjustment of state capital distribution, solidly promote high-quality steady growth, and make continuous efforts to boost market confidence and lead the development of the industry, so as to effectively serve as the stabilizer and ballast of the national economy.

At the same time, many projects of the central enterprises have started construction or the news of the progress of the project is also pouring in.

On February 18, the first phase of Zhejiang Jinqimen Nuclear Power Project, which is invested and controlled by China Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. under CNPC, started construction in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. The project is an important measure for CNNC to promote high-quality development and actively and steadily promote carbon peak carbon neutrality. The commencement of the project will inject new impetus into the optimization and transformation of the energy structure of Zhejiang Province.

On February 19, Sinopec received good news: The key pre-exploration well deployed by Sinopec in Qijiang district of Chongqing, Dingye 11, has obtained high production shale gas flow in Wufeng Formation - Longmaxi Formation shale, with a daily gas output of 204,500 cubic meters, which means that Sinopec has found a new scale of increased gas storage and rich gas belt in Sichuan Basin, and is expected to become a new position of increased storage and production in the Qijiang shale gas field, further helping to ensure national energy security.

In fact, at the beginning of this year, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council deployed a special action to improve quality and efficiency and stabilize growth, and effectively played a key role in effective investment. At the same time, efforts will be made to improve the quality of listed companies held by central enterprises and strengthen investor returns. Strengthen lean management, and make more contributions to economic and social development by comprehensively improving the operation quality and efficiency of central enterprises.

In addition, the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Investment Projects within the Central Budget" promulgated on January 12 this year has become a major measure to further strengthen the supervision of investment within the central budget and improve the efficiency of the use of government funds, and it is also an objective requirement to comprehensively promote legal supervision and improve investment management by means of legal compliance.

"We must unswervingly promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and make greater efforts to develop high-end, intelligent and green." Zhang Yuzhuo, head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, said at a recent meeting that central enterprises should firmly establish the concept of value creation and continuously improve the "gold content" of business performance. We should pay more attention to improving the value of enterprise added value, functional value, economic added value, the proportion of revenue and added value of strategic emerging industries, and brand value, and continue to become stronger, better and bigger in serving the national strategy.

Strategic emerging industries become "high-frequency words"

It is worth noting that strategic emerging industries have become the "high-frequency words" in the recent meeting of state-owned central enterprises, which is also the main direction of the layout of state-owned central enterprises in the future.

It is understood that in 2023, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council launched the implementation of the central enterprise industrial renewal action and the future industry sailing action, and introduced a package of support policies, which clearly answered the questions of "what to do", "who to do" and "how to support the policy", and stimulated the new momentum of enterprises.

Zhuang Shuxin, secretary-general of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, said recently that since last year, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council and central enterprises have taken the development of strategic emerging industries and future industries as a traction and overall work to grasp, and have made positive progress.

In terms of layout, central enterprises completed investment of 2.18 trillion yuan in strategic emerging industries last year, an increase of 32.1% year-on-year, landed a number of key projects in photovoltaic hydrogen production, carbon fiber manufacturing, automotive chips and other fields, and set up a number of new enterprises in laser manufacturing, quantum communication, satellite Internet and other fields. It has promoted a number of restructuring and integration in the fields of electronic technology, new energy, ecological environmental protection, and intelligent connected vehicles, and new industries and new business forms are becoming important growth points for enterprises.

Gou Ping, deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, also said that accelerating the development of strategic emerging industries is related to the overall situation, and it is also a complex systematic project, which is both a tough battle and a protracted war.

It is reported that in the next step, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council will continue to strengthen its support for the development of strategic emerging industries, and the enterprises will continue to coordinate resources and concentrate their efforts to put the development of strategic emerging industries in a more important position.

Source: SASAC of The State Council