Quick Take: State Council to Give Yearly Report on State-Owned Assets

China’s State Council will give an annual status report on state-owned assets to the National People’s Congress (NPC) as the country adopts new requirements for overseeing such properties.

The State Council, China’s cabinet, recently issued a statement demanding an annual report to the NPC Standing Committee on the status of state-owned assets. According to the NPC’s work plan, the first such report will be delivered during a meeting of the committee in October.

Because reforming the state-owned asset system requires detailed knowledge of the scale and management of state-owned assets, authorities saw the need to standardize how they report on them.

A person in charge of the budget committee of the NPC Standing Committee said the purpose of the report is to provide a clear picture of the current status of state assets, and the report will benefit the reforms by providing more transparency.

The State Council’s statement indicated that its report will cover assets such as state-owned enterprises (SOEs), state-owned financial assets and state-owned natural resources. The reports will mainly focus on the balance sheet, investment portfolio, risk management as well as details such as compensation for the management of SOEs.

As of the end of 2015, China had 119.2 trillion yuan ($18.51 trillion) of state-owned assets, according to Xiao Yaqing, head of the State-Owned Asset Supervision and Administration Committee.

Contact reporter Zhang Qizhi (qizhizhang@caixin.com)