Photo: Screenshot from the website of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council

China International Water & Electric Corp (CWE), a subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corp, has been transferred in its entirety to China Communications Construction Co (CCCC). The move involving resource integration will bolster the core competitiveness of China's centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs), a senior official said.

"The overall transfer is conducive both to China Three Gorges and CCCC, allowing them to highlight their main businesses, strengthen advantages and achieve effective improvement in resource allocation efficiency and development quality," Weng Jieming, deputy head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), the country's top state assets regulator, said at the signing ceremony of the two infrastructure building giants on Saturday.

The move will further strengthen each company's core competitiveness, allow them to jointly reinforce the industry and value chains in the clean energy sector, and build up Chinese brands, Weng said.

He said that the two SOEs should deepen win-win cooperation and strive to become a model for the coordinated development of China's centrally administered SOEs. 

CCCC and China Three Gorges have built up rich experience in resource integration in the past years.

CWE is an SOE pioneer in going global in the hydropower sector, and it has built more than 800 water conservation, hydropower and infrastructure projects in more than 80 countries and regions.

Located in northern Sudan on the Nile River, the Merowe Dam, built by CWE, is the largest contemporary hydropower project in Africa, which contains a reservoir of 20 percent of the Nile's annual flow. Construction was finished in 2009.

Amid the complex international situation, it is suggested that Chinese firms will consolidate their management foundation, enhance their professional, systemic, and legal management capabilities, and actively respond to challenges and resolve risks in a coordinated manner when it relates to overseas investment - especially projects under the Belt and Road Initiative, the official said.

The Central Economic Work Conference in December urged efforts to deepen the reform of SOEs while improving their core competitiveness.

China's centrally administered SOEs saw a steady expansion in revenues and profits in 2022, the SASAC said in early January. 

The combined annual revenues of central SOEs rose an estimated 8.3 percent on a yearly basis to 39.4 trillion yuan ($5.7 trillion). 

Profits were about 2.55 trillion yuan, up 5.5 percent from the previous year, according to the commission.

Global Times