State-owned enterprises are divided into public enterprises (empresa pública) and mixed-economy companies (sociedade de economia mista). The public enterprises are subdivided into two categories: individual – with its own assets and owned by the – and plural companies – whose assets are owned by multiple government agencies and the Union, which have the majority of the voting interest.,, and and. The state sector is a major part of China's economy, with SOEs accounting for approximately 25% of the national GDP. China's SOEs are among the largest global firms by revenue, and of the 135 Chinese companies on the list (2023), 85 are state-owned. SOEs are important to domestic equity markets, accounting for about 40% of total market capitalization and 50% of company revenues on the and.
Within public utilities, aggregate assets of state enterprises in electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply are the largest, followed by those in transportation and storage and information and technology. This subsection describes how state enterprises stand out among the world's largest companies.
Overall, the sectors with the greatest number of state enterprises are manufacturing; real estate businesses; electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply; and transportation and storage (Table 3). China tops the list with 1,180 state enterprises. China's state enterprises are concentrated in manufacturing and real estate.
The downstream segment is dominated by mainly state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that provide energy storage applications on the power generation, grid, and user sides, such as State Grid, Energy China and CHN Energy.
What are state enterprises?
State enterprises are often concentrated in industries that produce essential products such as water, electricity, and transportation infrastructure and services. These enterprises are also found in strategic industries such as defense and aerospace. Another area in which state enterprises play a large role is finance.
How do state-owned enterprises drive economic growth?
SOEs are in a unique position to drive economic growth given their size, mission, and strategic objectives. For FIGURE 1 SOEs dominate in network and primary sectors (equity value, 2015). Source: OECD, The Size and Sectoral Distribution of State-Owned Enterprises, (2017).
State-owned enterprises are mostly governed by both local governments' SASAC and, in the central government, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council.