An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 9, 2025 shows a construction site in the start-up zone of Xiong'an New Area, north China's Hebei Province. File photo: Xinhua

The head of China's state-asset watchdog has urged three centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to take the relocation of their headquarters to the Xiong'an New Area in North China's Hebei Province as a new starting point and move faster to build world-class enterprises.

The comments were made during a visit to the new headquarters of China Huaneng Group Co, China Satellite Network Group Co and Sinochem Holdings Co in the Xiong'an New Area in North China's Hebei Province, according to a post on the SASAC's website on Sunday.

Zhang Yuzhuo, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, urged central SOEs to seize opportunities and better serve the overall work of the country's economic development during a Friday trip to Xiong'an.

The SASAC will provide greater support for central SOEs to gain a solid foothold, achieve stability and pursue development in the Xiong'an New Area, Zhang said.

China Huaneng Group Co and Sinochem Holdings Co, two centrally administered SOEs, officially relocated their headquarters to the Xiong'an New Area on October 9.

Together with China Satellite Network Group Co, which relocated to Xiong'an in October last year, the three were the first batch of centrally administered SOEs to establish a presence in Xiong'an, dubbed as China's "city of the future" by the Xinhua News Agency.  

Zhang stressed that central SOEs should concentrate on their main responsibilities and core businesses, bolster innovation, build themselves into a source of ground-breaking innovations and original innovations, and accelerate industrial clustering, with a view to better contribute to the high-standard and high-quality development of the Xiong'an New Area.

Efforts should be made to facilitate follow-up relocation, and ensure the care and support for employees in both work and life, the SASAC head said.

Zhang urged central SOEs to take solid steps to implement strategic plans, build new energy systems, accelerate the development of new types of network infrastructure, and upgrade traditional chemical and agricultural industries, so as to contribute more to sustaining China's sound economic growth and social development.

In April 2017, China decided to set up the Xiong'an New Area, located about 100 kilometers south of Beijing, as a part of a strategy to promote the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Xiong'an was designed to be a smart and livable city that is innovative, green and free from "urban ills." The new area aims to relieve Beijing of non-essential functions related to its role as the nation's capital, Xinhua reported.

Bian Yongzu, a senior researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Sunday that as these major SOEs hold unique strengths in terms of research and development, industrial supply chains, and technological applications, they could greatly facilitate the Xiong'an New Area's pursuit of innovation-driven and high-quality development and its goal to build itself into a "city of the future."

The emphasis on innovation-driven growth amid the broader transition of the Chinese economy to high-quality development also sends a signal for the development of the SOEs, which are being urged to invest more in sectors that could become chokepoints of the country's economic development, Bian said, noting that the construction of Xiong'an has also highlighted China's unique advantages in mobilizing resources nationwide to promote a national strategy and achieve strategic goals.

Zhang also inspected the construction site of the headquarters of China Mineral Resources Group (CMRG) in the Xiong'an New Area. CMRG is a new central SOE established in July 2022.

Since the beginning of this year, central SOEs have been consolidating their foundations by focusing on their main businesses and strengthening their profitability and innovation capabilities.

In the first three quarters of 2025, more than 220 central SOE-controlled listed companies achieved year-on-year growth in net profits, with 19 companies doubling their net profits. Multiple companies turned a profit after previous losses, and sectors such as defense and the military industry, machinery, and equipment achieved particularly strong performances, the Shanghai Securities News reported on November 15.