Photo: History of Qingmei Kan
Editor|Ome Kanshi
As an important pillar of China's economy and the leading force of economic development, state-owned enterprises have always been the best jobs in the hearts of the Chinese people.
However, when people want to know about state-owned enterprises, they find that some enterprises are called state-owned enterprises, and some are called central enterprises, which makes people wonder: is there any difference between state-owned enterprises and central enterprises?
The difference between a central enterprise and a state-owned enterprise
In terms of conceptual scope, state-owned enterprises are a big concept and central enterprises are a small concept.
State-owned enterprises, that is, state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises that have equity shares and can decide the behavior of the company or enterprise according to the will and interests of the government are state-owned enterprises.
State-owned enterprises are divided into wholly state-owned enterprises (companies), wholly state-owned enterprises (companies) and state-owned capital holding companies. Only a company with a 50% stake in its state-owned capital is considered a state-owned enterprise.
Why is state-owned enterprises a big concept? Because state-funded holdings include not only the central government's contributions, but also the contributions made by local governments as investors, and even other state-owned enterprises.
On the other hand, central enterprises refer to state-owned enterprises that are directly under the jurisdiction of government departments of the State Council, or entrust the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission) to serve as investors.
State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are divided into central and local enterprises according to the funding government. A central enterprise is a part of a state-owned enterprise, and all central enterprises meet the definition of a state-owned enterprise, but a state-owned enterprise is not necessarily a central enterprise.
In fact, in the era of planned economy in the past, the distinction between the definitions of central enterprises and state-owned enterprises was not obvious. Because the planned economy was implemented at that time, there were few domestic companies and enterprises, and all of them were under the unified management of the central government.
But that changed after the market was opened. In order to adapt to changes in the market environment and ensure that the state-owned economy can still dominate the Chinese market, the state has relaxed restrictions and allowed local governments to invest in enterprises.
As a result, the scale of state-owned enterprises has gradually expanded, and the definition distinction between state-owned enterprises and central enterprises has become more and more obvious.
The role and importance of state-owned enterprises
As an important pillar of China's economy and a leading force in economic development, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) assume very important responsibilities and missions.
First of all, state-owned enterprises need to control and exploit important national strategic resources at all times, and protect domestic resources from being stolen by foreign forces and private individuals, such as the famous PetroChina and Sinopec, which control the important petrochemical resources of the mainland.
The second is that state-owned enterprises should undertake the important task of providing good infrastructure services for domestic economic development, and only when the country's various infrastructure construction is done well, can the national economy have a better future development.
Putting state-owned enterprises in charge of the country's infrastructure is also a form of protection for the country's economy. National infrastructure construction is the cornerstone of national economic development, and as long as we firmly grasp the cornerstone, no matter what turbulence occurs in the superstructure, the national economy can maintain the ability to recover quickly and make a comeback.
Taking Internet companies as an example, many people are worried that Internet monopolies such as Tencent and Alibaba will become bigger and will get out of the control of the state.
But in fact, no matter how big this kind of Internet enterprise is, it is only the branches and leaves of the big tree of China's Internet, and the branches of the big tree, and the lifeblood of China's Internet is still in the hands of China Telecom and China Mobile, two state-owned enterprises.
Others, such as railways, national highways, highways, aerospace, and telecommunications, are all built and managed by state-owned enterprises to ensure that all infrastructure facilities on the mainland are in the hands of the state and to protect the country's security from the economic aspect.
In addition to these, state-owned enterprises are also the vanguard and main force of China's scientific and technological research and development. It can be said that China has been able to catch up with the modern scientific and technological development of Western countries for more than 300 years in less than 100 years, and even repeatedly broken the scientific and technological blockade of the West, most of which is due to the credit of these state-owned enterprises that focus on scientific research.
Since SOEs are divided into central and local enterprises, their roles in the Chinese economy are also different.
Many of the central enterprises were transformed from the relevant departments of the central government in the past, such as the China State Railway Group, which was established by the Ministry of Railways through many reforms.
Therefore, the central enterprises have a strong national and administrative attributes. The senior management leaders of all central enterprises are directly appointed by the Organization Department of the Central Committee.
In addition, there is also a division of administrative registration of central enterprises, except for China Railway, China Investment Corporation (China Investment Corporation), CITIC (China CITIC Group Co., Ltd.) three central enterprises are at the ministerial level, and the other central enterprises are at the deputy ministerial level and department level.
In other words, the main person in charge and manager of the central enterprise is essentially the economic official of the central government.
It is precisely because of this that the central enterprises are the first executors of the national strategic intention and policy direction, and are more in the overall planning of the national policy in the economy to guide the direction of domestic economic construction.
Since local enterprises are funded and operated by local governments, the focus of work is more focused on local economic construction, and the main service objects are local governments and local economies, which are important drivers of local economic development.
The number of local enterprises is far more than that of central enterprises, and the categories are more abundant than those of central enterprises, covering almost all economic fields in the current market, and it is also the most ideal employment unit for college students whose majors are becoming more and more finely divided.
In addition to accepting the unified dispatch of the central government, local enterprises also need to accept the command of the local government and complete the relevant tasks assigned by the local government.
In addition to promoting local economic development, local enterprises should also help local governments undertake specific public services, public safety, environmental protection and other areas that are closely related to the people.
In terms of the economic layout of the whole country, local enterprises that have close relations with local governments, have a larger number and cover a comprehensive range of fields, play the role of "stabilizers" of the national economy.
So we have a general understanding of the respective roles and functions of state-owned enterprises, central enterprises and local enterprises, so what are the specific central enterprises in the mainland?
What are the central enterprises?
In the narrow sense, SOEs refer to the 98 industrial enterprises managed by the SASAC, but if other SOEs directly managed by the State Council are included, the number of SOEs in China is 131.
In addition to the 98 industrial enterprises managed by the SASAC, there are 26 financial enterprises, 3 cultural enterprises and 4 other functional enterprises.
What are the 98 industrial enterprises managed by the SASAC, readers can log on to the official website of the SASAC to view, and I will not list them all here.
In addition to the aforementioned CITIC and CIC, which are directly managed by the State Council, the remaining 24 central enterprises are managed by the Ministry of Finance, including the five major banks and the two major insurance companies of PICC and Life Insurance.
Among the three cultural state-owned enterprises, except for China Radio and Television Network Co., Ltd., which is directly managed by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, China International Culture Group and China Publishing Group are both directly managed by the State Council.
The four other functional SOEs include the China State Railway Group under the State Council, the China Post Group under the Ministry of Transport, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (China National Tobacco Corporation) under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China, and the Beidahuang Agricultural Reclamation Group Co., Ltd. under the Ministry of Agriculture.
epilogue
State-owned enterprises are not only an important pillar of China's economy, but also an important guarantee of the socialist system. As long as state-owned enterprises will continue to maintain the dominant position of China's economy and lead the development of China's economy.