The latest statement from the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission concerns expanding effective investment, "AI+" initiatives by central enterprises, and more.

According to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) website on March 17, the SASAC Party Committee recently held an expanded meeting to make a series of important arrangements for the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), involving expanding effective investment, “AI+” initiatives for central enterprises, and more.

SASAC emphasized the need to strengthen guidance for central enterprises to continue serving as stabilizers and ballast for the national economy, keenly grasping changes in the situation, scientifically and reasonably setting operational goals, striving to expand development space, focusing on improving operational quality, and concentrating on “two heavy” and “two new” areas. They plan to proactively plan and implement major projects and landmark engineering, work to expand effective investment, tighten responsibilities, and firmly maintain the bottom line of preventing systemic risks.

Liu Xingguo, Executive Vice President of the Industry-Education Integration Research Institute at Hunan Automotive Engineering Vocational University, told Jiemian News that increased investment by central enterprises aims not only to help achieve annual growth targets but also aligns with their long-term development needs.

“In the short term, promoting major project investments can accelerate the formation of tangible work volume and stimulate effective demand. These investments also have a driving effect, attracting more social capital. In the long run, the goal is to build greater production capacity and lay a solid foundation for sustainable development,” Liu said.

Additionally, SASAC mentioned the need to accelerate the cultivation and expansion of new productive forces in central enterprises, resolutely serve as the national team advancing high-level technological independence and self-reliance, and as the main force in building a modern industrial system. This includes strengthening original innovation and tackling key core technologies, increasing investment in basic research, leading open scenarios, accelerating the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into productive forces, deeply implementing the “AI+” special action for central enterprises, speeding up digital and intelligent transformation, and tailoring efforts to accelerate the development of a batch of emerging pillar industries.

Artificial intelligence is a key driver of the new wave of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, representing a strategic and foundational technology that will lead the future.

On February 12, SASAC announced that a recent meeting on the deepening deployment of the “AI+” special action for central enterprises was held. The meeting disclosed the latest progress of the initiative and clarified four main tasks for further advancing the program, including continuous breakthroughs in “large model” technology, actively expanding effective investments in computing power, and promoting coordinated development of “computing power + electricity.”

Pang Xiaogang, Deputy Director of SASAC, stated on January 28 that moving forward, SASAC will focus on key areas such as embodied intelligence and energy and power, exploring the formation of an “AI+” industry community, increasing openness of scenarios, and creating more integrated major scenarios, industry-specific scenarios, and high-value niche scenarios.

Besides expanding effective investment and promoting “AI+” initiatives, SASAC also mentioned efforts to promote the “Three Concentrations” of state capital, accelerate the optimization and restructuring of the state-owned economy, guide central enterprises to further improve the modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics, deepen reforms of the three systems, strengthen compensation management, and fully stimulate enterprise vitality.

The government work report this year encourages central and state-owned enterprises to lead in opening up application scenarios and to develop emerging pillar industries such as integrated circuits, aerospace, biomedicine, and low-altitude economy.

On March 5, during the first “Ministerial Channel” at the Fourth Session of the 14th National People’s Congress, Zhang Yuzhuo stated that the development strategies for central enterprises in strategic emerging industries and future industries will be continuously strengthened in three areas: leading, surpassing, and cultivating.

Regarding leading, Zhang mentioned industries such as new energy and aerospace. “For example, in the new energy sector, a bottleneck faced by foreign AI development is insufficient electricity, but China has abundant and green power. China accounts for 50% of global wind and solar power installations, half of which are owned by central enterprises. Moving forward, we will promote leading industries to maintain a sustained advantage internationally and strengthen our long-term capabilities,” he said.

In terms of surpassing, key industries include new energy vehicles, AI, and new materials. Zhang cited that in the past three years, the output and revenue of three major automotive central enterprises doubled, and the market share of independent brands increased from 10% to 16.5%.

For cultivation, industries such as quantum information, nuclear fusion, and low-altitude economy are included. “For example, China Fusion Energy Co., Ltd. was established, initiated by several central enterprises. In low-altitude economy, central enterprises have developed the Jiutian drone, called the ‘air drone carrier,’ capable of continuous flight for 12 hours, with a transfer range of 7,000 kilometers, and can deploy hundreds of micro-drones in the air,” he explained.

Liu Xingguo said in an interview that for central enterprises, focusing on strategic emerging industries aims to enhance development momentum, improve core competitiveness, and gain development initiative.

“Over the next period, the investment of state-owned enterprises will mainly focus on strategic emerging industries and future industries, such as industrial mother machines, digital technology, AI, quantum technology, industrial robots, and health industries,” he added.

Furthermore, SASAC mentioned at the meeting that efforts will be made to further improve the management and supervision system for state assets, deepen the “one enterprise, one policy” classification assessment, enhance transparent supervision, and improve supervision effectiveness, continuously strengthening the core functions and competitiveness of state-owned enterprises.