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Head of China’s biggest state firm in Hong Kong urges Beijing to deepen market reforms

  • Fu Yuning, chairman of China Resources Group, says competition is necessary for state enterprises to reform themselves and emerge stronger on the global stage

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Fu Yuning, chairman of China Resources Group, which owns US$160 billion worth of assets. Photo: Felix Wong

The head of China’s largest and oldest state-owned company in Hong Kong has recommended that the government should let competitive forces play a bigger role in certain market-oriented industries.

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The government should continue to dominate industries monopolised by state entities, such as power distribution and transmission, whereas industries that are already populated by private enterprises or quasi-state companies should be allowed to compete.

“Let the fittest survive,” said Fu Yuning, chairman of China Resources Group, a conglomerate with its earliest presence in Hong Kong tracing back to 1938 and owning US$160 billion in assets.

He was speaking at an event on Tuesday organised by Our Hong Kong Foundation, a think tank set up in 2014 by former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa.

Fu’s comment comes at a critical juncture in China’s economic reforms, when state enterprises and private businesses are locked in a collective soul-searching to stake a claim in the world’s second largest economy. At stake are government resources, access to crucial financing, market access, technology and regulatory barriers.

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A labourer works at an assembly line in a factory of China Resources’ Snow Breweries, in Lanzhou, Gansu province, in this August 25, 2010 photo. Photo: Reuters
A labourer works at an assembly line in a factory of China Resources’ Snow Breweries, in Lanzhou, Gansu province, in this August 25, 2010 photo. Photo: Reuters

Fu said the central government has changed its attitude towards uncompetitive state firms and will no longer save those losing out to private players or foreign rivals.

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