The distribution of resources among State firms, especially when such things as mergers take place, should be decided by the businesses themselves instead of by the government, Li Rongrong, minister of the commission, told a press conference on Saturday.

According to Li, the commission will establish 50 colossal enterprise groups and companies capable of competing on the global market in the next five years.

During the process of establishment, market forces will be fully brought into play and the groups and companies will be given free rein to allocate their resources as they see fit, because they know better than the government what is best for them, said Li.

The minister promised redoubled efforts to overhaul and regulate market order so as to create a fair environment of competition for enterprises.

The social security system should be improved so that State-owned enterprises will be able to determine by themselves how large their workforce should be, said Li.

While continuing to separate the functions of government from those of enterprises, the functions of government should be reformed to reduce administrative oversight, and State monopolies in such industries as civil aviation, rail and banking should be broken, he said.

The minister said China was keen to have more enterprises issue shares abroad so that they could have multiple shareholders.