Li: State-owned enterprises needed an innovation-driven development strategy and global collaboration.

Bloomberg
Beijing

China’s Premier Li Keqiang is calling for state-owned enterprises to promote mergers and reorganisations to increase the efficiency of their operations, as the nation faces its slowest growth in 25 years.
State-owned enterprises need to deepen reforms with a focus on steady growth and increasing their competitiveness, Li said in a seminar which included senior officials on Friday.Officials from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and executives from companies including China Railway Construction Corp were present, according to the statement.
The world’s second-largest economy is set to grow at its slowest pace in a quarter century this year even after five central bank interest rate cuts and fiscal stimulus. Li’s calls come amid an equity-market rout that’s wiped $5tn in value off the nation’s stocks and after a sudden move on August 11 to change its exchange rate regime, a decision which triggered the yuan’s biggest depreciation in two decades and roiled global markets.
Li also urged state-owned enterprises to dispose of “zombie” companies and those suffering from long-term losses. To foster growth, Li said state-owned enterprises needed an innovation-driven development strategy and global collaboration.China last week announced long-awaited guidelines to make its bloated state-owned enterprises more efficient as policy makers search for ways of reinvigorating its $10tn economy. The nation’s leaders had announced their intention to overhaul SoEs at a gathering in 2013 in a move aimed at eliminating waste and boosting their competitiveness.