Reforms should mean growth: China state cos

State-owned enterprises and affiliated businesses account for more than half of output and employment in China, the world's second-biggest economy. They include power grid-operator State Grid, the world's seventh-biggest company.

Oil giants Sinopec Group and China National Petroleum Corp, parent of PetroChina, rank fifth and sixth, respectively. Of the 70 mainland companies on the 2012 Fortune Global 500 list, 65 are state-owned.

DRAG

Chinese reformers and Western governments say their sheer size and market dominance creates a drag on the economy through vast opportunity for corruption and waste, leading to higher costs for consumers.

Calls for reform built up as factions manoeuvred ahead of the once-in-decade leadership transition at the congress. When Xi Jinping, Hu's anointed successor, is in place he will be under immediate pressure to break the grip of inefficient SOEs and reinvigorate China's three-decade-long economic miracle.

But he will have to deal with the divisions within the party on policy.

Critics claim that without further reform of the state sector, China's growth will stagnate. They call for equal opportunity for private firms, which provide most of the new jobs in China.

On Friday, data for October showed the economy was pulling away from its slowest growth in three years. Analysts said that thanks to a raft of pro-growth policies rolled out by the government in recent months.

Wang, the state assets

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