China will prevent the loss of state assets by regularizing the structural changes and ownership transfers of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) this year, a senior official said yesterday. 

In any structural changes and ownership transfers of SOEs, the drafting of the plan, assets liquidation and evaluation, financial audit, and the deciding of the way of trading must be conducted jointly by the involved SOE and the state assets watchdog departments, and be in strict accordance with relevant regulations, said Li Rongrong, director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

Ownership transfers of the state assets must be conducted in authorized trade centers in public and the information must be published, Li said.

The practice of some SOE management trying to hold company stocks or stock options by means of "increasing capital and expanding stocks" should be put under strict control, he said.

"Those SOE management members who want to hold company stocks by such means will not be allowed to participate in the drafting of the reform plan or any other major procedures of the reform," Li added.

(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2006)