China's central SOEs achieve positive 2025 start despite challenges

China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have managed a good start to 2025 despite various challenges and risks, China's top state assets regulator said Friday.

In the first quarter of this year, central SOEs achieved added value of 2.6 trillion yuan (about 360.77 billion U.S. dollars) and a combined profit of 646.27 billion yuan, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

During the first quarter, central SOEs' fixed-asset investment, including real estate, reached 851.3 billion yuan -- with investment in strategic emerging industries rising by 6.6 percent year on year.

The commission urged central SOEs to boost reform and innovation in a quest to strengthen vitality and drive progress. It stressed the importance of accelerating the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into productive forces, and emphasized the need to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields.

The commission also highlighted the need for central SOEs to promote large-scale application of new technologies, products and scenarios, to enhance the quality of industrial development. ■