China is considering stricter supervision of central enterprises' overseas assets in a bid to avoid potential risks, the 21st Century Business Herald reported on Dec 8.
The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) "will introduce an act to regulate central enterprises' overseas assets," Huang Shuhe, vice chairman of SASAC, told the newspaper.
While potential losses in overseas state assets posed a major challenge for enterprises and regulators SASAC is working on the new regulation, which includes setting up an investment qualification threshold and risk warning system, reforming investment approval procedures and regulating the property rights of overseas state assets, according to the report.
A total of 108 central enterprises had invested overseas with total assets more than 4 trillion yuan ($600 billion) by the end of 2009, according to SASAC statistics. In the same year, profits generated by overseas investments accounted for 37.7 percent of central enterprises' total profits.
