China has issued guidance on reforming state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including the introduction of "mixed ownership" of state firms and efforts to improve their corporate governance, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.
The guidance was jointly issued by the Communist Party's Central Committee and the State Council, China's cabinet, Xinhua said in its official Weibo microblog. No further details were given.
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The step comes nearly two years after President Xi Jinping called for market forces to play a decisive role in the better allocation of resources in the world's second-largest economy.
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China will push firms to merge and sells shares as part of the most far-reaching reforms of its sprawling and inefficient state sector in two decades, according to documents seen by Reuters.