Chinese SOEs report surge in profits

BEIJING -- Net profits at China's State-owned enterprises witnessed an average annual growth of 25.2 percent from 2003 to 2011, the country's chief supervisor of State-owned assets announced Wednesday.

During the period, SOEs' net profit increased from 320 billion yuan ($51.2 billion) to 1.9 trillion yuan, said Wang Yong, head of the the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. He made the comments during a briefing to the ongoing bimonthly session of the national legislature.

According to Wang, China had 144,700 SOEs and State-controlled enterprises by the end of 2011, whose total assets topped 85.37 trillion yuan.

The figures do not include SOEs in the financial sector, Wang added.