From December 22 to 23, a meeting of heads of central enterprises was held in Beijing. Focusing on five key areas—stabilizing operations, improving quality and efficiency, optimizing layout and adjusting structure, strengthening innovation and promoting transformation, advancing reform and boosting vitality, and safeguarding people's livelihoods while maintaining overall stability—the meeting set out the priorities for central enterprises in 2026.
This year marks the concluding year of the Deepening and Upgrading Action for State-Owned Enterprise Reform. Reporters have learned that the main tasks of this action have now been basically completed.
Zhang Yuzhuo, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, stated that next year, we should take the reform of state-owned enterprises to a new level from a fresh starting point. In terms of content, the focus will primarily be on perfecting the modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics and enhancing the corporate management and operational systems.
Make every effort to stabilize operations and improve quality and efficiency
The reporter from the Securities Daily learned at the conference that, in the first 11 months of this year, central enterprises achieved added value of 9.5 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%. The annualized per capita labor productivity of central enterprises reached 811,000 yuan per person, up 3% over the previous year. The cash collection ratio from operations, the operating profit margin, and the annualized return on net assets all remained at reasonable levels. Fixed-asset investment (excluding real estate) totaled 3.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.7% over the previous year.
This year marks the concluding year of the 14th Five-Year Plan. According to data from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, over the past five years, the total assets of central enterprises have successively crossed three major milestones—70 trillion yuan, 80 trillion yuan, and 90 trillion yuan—significantly enhancing their scale, strength, value-creation capabilities, and brand influence.
To ensure a good start and solid progress for the 15th Five-Year Plan, this meeting has laid out key priorities for central enterprises in 2026 from five different aspects. Among these, 'fully committing to stabilizing operations and improving quality and efficiency' has been given top priority. Zhang Yuzhuo outlined specific development guidelines for central enterprises from three perspectives: space, quality, and potential.
Zhang Yuzhuo emphasized that central enterprises should, first, seize opportunities to expand market space and explore the application of various big data and industry-specific models to accurately identify potential market demands, innovate and enhance the quality of goods and services, cultivate and strengthen new consumption scenarios in areas such as culture and tourism, digital technologies, and health, and strive to create new growth drivers. Second, they should strengthen management to improve development quality. They should consistently tap into internal potential, implement comprehensive budget management, reinforce cost control across all employees, all factors, and the entire lifecycle, and intensify oversight of accounts receivable, contract assets, inventories, and accounts payable. They should also enhance the quality and market capitalization management of listed companies. Third, they should accumulate development potential through effective investment. Focusing on key areas such as strengthening and addressing weaknesses in industrial chains, infrastructure construction, energy and resource security, and forward-looking industrial planning, they should make good use of various supportive policies, proactively plan and implement a batch of major projects and landmark initiatives, and lay a solid foundation for sustainable development.
“Judging from the signals released at this conference, the importance of central enterprises in ensuring the stable operation of the national economy will further increase in 2026,” said Zhu Changming, partner at Sunshine Times Law Firm and head of the State-Owned Enterprise Mixed-Ownership Reform Center, in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Daily. In 2026, central enterprises will focus on leveraging technological means to achieve precise insights into consumer demand and elevate the quality of supply on the consumption side; on the investment side, they will concentrate on strengthening industrial foundations, seizing emerging growth areas, and promoting the upgrading of existing assets.
Vigorously promote reorganization, integration and mergers and acquisitions
The 15th Five-Year Plan is about to begin. Zhang Yuzhuo stated that central enterprises should take high-quality preparation and implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan as a key driver to promote the continuous alignment of their layout and structure with the times and facilitate the 'three concentrations' of state-owned capital.
“Elevating the formulation of the ‘15th Five-Year Plan’ to a ‘master lever’ for optimizing industrial layout marks that the restructuring and integration of central enterprises will enter a brand-new stage characterized by ‘plan-led, targeted measures, and systemic reshaping,’” Zhu Changming predicted.
Zhang Yuzhuo emphasized that in 2026, we must adopt multiple measures to optimize our strategic layout and adjust our industrial structure. On the one hand, we should simultaneously pursue the transformation of traditional industries and the development of emerging industries. We will deeply implement the "Renewal and Launch" initiatives, placing particular emphasis on project-driven and scenario-based approaches, and continue to focus on key areas such as new energy, new-energy vehicles, new materials, aerospace, the low-altitude economy, quantum technology, and 6G. We will also step up efforts to identify, select, and nurture start-up enterprises. We will further deepen and expand the "AI+" initiative, launch a new round of digital transformation actions for central enterprises, strengthen the tiered cultivation of smart factories, continuously promote technological upgrades and large-scale equipment renewal, and advance energy-saving and carbon-reduction transformations in key industries, thereby effectively accelerating the pace of transformation. On the other hand, we must vigorously promote strategic, specialized restructuring and high-quality mergers and acquisitions. While balancing returns and risks, we should actively acquire core resources, cultivate competitive advantages, and seize early development opportunities. State-owned capital investment and operating companies should better play their role as platforms.Furthermore, we must actively and effectively carry out international operations in a standardized and orderly manner.
“From a horizontal perspective, addressing issues such as homogeneous competition in traditional industries, central enterprises are expected to intensify efforts to optimize resource allocation by 2026, further cultivating industry leaders and enhancing their bargaining power and influence in the global market. From a vertical perspective, to achieve the goal of ‘strengthening the foundation and addressing shortcomings in the industrial chain,’ central enterprises are expected to engage in mergers and acquisitions along the upstream and downstream segments of key industries and critical sectors that are vital to national security and the lifeline of the national economy—particularly acquiring crucial resources and technologies from the upstream and expanding into high-end services downstream. This vertically integrated approach, led by ‘chain leaders’ or ‘chain masters,’ will enhance the resilience and security level of the industrial chain,” said Zhu Changming.
Liu Xingguo, a specially appointed senior researcher at the China Enterprise Confederation, predicts that in 2026, the restructuring, integration, and mergers & acquisitions of central enterprises will be steadily advanced, focusing on fields such as artificial intelligence, biopharmaceuticals, and the digital economy.
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