Li Jin: The key to the restructuring of state-owned enterprises is to enhance the competitiveness of the industrial chain

Source: Economic Daily

Recently, Sinochem Group and ChemChina implemented a joint restructuring and were integrated into the new company. This joint restructuring will better integrate resources, exert synergy effects, and build a world-class comprehensive chemical enterprise. With the deepening of the joint restructuring of state-owned enterprises, grasping the characteristics of the new stage and achieving practical results in the competitiveness of the industrial chain is something that needs special emphasis in the current restructuring of state-owned enterprises.

The purpose of the restructuring of state-owned enterprises is not to make the scale larger in the general sense, but to do a solid job in business coordination and management improvement, gather innovative resources, open up the industrial chain, and enhance the market competitiveness of the industry. At present, the layout of the global industrial chain is being deeply adjusted. The key to improving the efficiency of the restructuring of state-owned enterprises lies in forming the competitiveness of the industrial chain. This is the goal of mergers and reorganizations of state-owned enterprises, and it is also an important focus.

The professional integration of the industrial chain is the focus of the restructuring of state-owned enterprises. Specialized restructuring takes the industrial layout and structural adjustment as the background, promotes the aggregation of resources to advantageous industries, promotes enterprises to focus on the main business, and connects and combines all aspects of production or operation to form a number of industrial chains. Efforts should be made to straighten out the logical relationship between business sectors, and promote the integration of industrial chains with the goal of integration, thereby reducing production costs, ensuring the continuity of production and a certain degree of control in the industry, so as to maximize profits. At the same time, we will promote the elimination of backward excess capacity and reduce vicious competition and redundant construction. Focusing on vertical integration, improving professional supply chain control capabilities, and effectively improving the position of enterprises in the market are the basic tasks in the restructuring of state-owned enterprises.

The strengthening of the core industrial chain is the key to the restructuring of state-owned enterprises. The complexity of the industrial chain itself and other factors have led to large differences in the adjustment of the global industrial chain. Some industrial chains are deeply embedded, technology-intensive, capital-intensive, and not easy to transfer, and the adjustment of the core industrial chain is more time-consuming and costly. These industries, which are highly dependent on specialization and global division of labor, are an important part of the global industrial chain. Strengthening a number of key links that have an important impact on the efficiency of industrial development and the upgrading trend is an important part of the transformation and upgrading of enterprises.

Gathering and allocating scientific and technological innovation resources and forming stronger competitiveness is the top priority of the restructuring of state-owned enterprises. China's industrial base, including high-end equipment, core components, basic research, etc. is still very weak, some key core technologies are subject to people, there is a "card neck" problem. The introduction of foreign capital and technology cannot be automatically transformed into the innovation ability of local enterprises, and the core competitiveness of the industrial chain mainly depends on the scientific and technological capabilities of local enterprises in China. State-owned enterprises should take advantage of the opportunity of restructuring, continue to build new comparative advantages, organize scientific and technological forces, form new momentum for enterprises, make science and technology drive the development of enterprises, sort out relevant scientific and technological resources in mergers and acquisitions and reorganization, obtain more advanced technologies and better talents, and promote the industry to move from low value-added to high added value.

Supplementing the shortcomings of the industrial chain is an urgent task for the restructuring of state-owned enterprises. The adjustment of the international industrial chain is an external factor, and the shortcomings of China's industrial chain itself are the internal factors affecting the security and stability of the industrial chain. State-owned enterprises should focus on the present and the long term, adhere to the bottom line thinking, and enhance the position of enterprises in the industrial chain value chain and build a solid foundation for the industrial chain from the perspectives of preventing and resolving industrial chain risks, enhancing the independent controllability of industrial chain technology, and making the social foundation of the industrial chain more inclusive. For some important industries or fields, even if the technical capabilities of local enterprises cannot be improved in the short term, they must have backup or replacement capabilities.

In the reorganization of state-owned enterprises, it is necessary to pay more attention to cultivating and strengthening the domestic market, give greater play to the guiding role of domestic demand for enterprise goods and services, and reduce the external dependence of the state-owned economy, especially certain industries. Emphasis is placed in the home country or region to control non-market risks. In particular, industries that cannot be self-sufficient, such as oil, important minerals and some agricultural products, must pay more attention to the "internal circulation" of the self-sufficient industrial chain.

(Source of this article: Economic Daily The author is Li Jin, chief researcher of China Enterprise Research Institute and researcher of State-owned Economic Research Center of Jilin University)