China's top state assets watchdog said in Beijing Thursday that the state assets should be allocated into fields concerning state security and the national economy.

Li Rongrong, minister in charge of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said at a meeting that the state companies should be further restructured toeliminate excess employees and create effective management.

State-owned enterprises should compete with others, including private-owned companies, on an equal footing, Li said.

He also urged local state-owned companies to make more contributions to state revenue.

According to statistics from 1998 to 2003, the number of state-owned companies or state-holding companies reduced from 238,000 to150,000, whereas their profits increased from 21.37 billion yuan (2.57 billion US dollars) to 495.12 billion yuan. The gross assets of state-owned companies or state-holding companies increased from14.9 trillion yuan to 19.7 trillion yuan.

Strategic planning for state-owned companies and their primary business is vitally important to improve their competitiveness, Lisaid.

Mandated by the State Council, the SASAC directly controls 178 big state companies.

Source: Xinhua