Profits of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) grew 25 percent year-on-year to 904.7 billion yuan (US$112 billion) in 2005, a record high, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday.

Zhu Zhigang, Vice Minister of Finance, said sales revenue of SOEs totaled 11.534 trillion yuan (US$1,424 billion) last year, up 19.2 percent from the previous year.

Zhu attributed the rapid growth to sound macroeconomic practices, improved corporate governance, restructuring, and higher commodity and petrochemical prices.

China's macroeconomic policy over the last year was designed to make its rapid economic growth sustainable by cooling investment in sectors such as iron and steel, and cement, while increasing investment in agriculture, energy, transportation and public services, also considered the "weak links" for China.

Since 1999, billions of yuan in government funding has been used to restructure China's state-owned sector in order to contain losses and improve profitability. Unprofitable firms have been shut down while others have cut surplus employees and phased out non-essential functions.

Between 1999 and 2004, 80,000 SOEs were shut down, or 37 percent of the total. Employee numbers dropped 49 percent to 38.25 million, Zhu said.

Dramatic price increases for commodities and petrochemical goods further pushed profits up. Profits for firms involved in oil, coal and non-ferrous metals jumped 52 percent, 74 percent and 60 percent respectively, Zhu said.

Driven by high demand and rising prices, the energy, petrochemical and raw material sectors contributed 84 percent of the total growth in profits, Zhu added.

Zhu also said that profits of SOEs under direct control of the central government totaled 641.3 billion yuan in 2005, accounting for about 70 percent of all profit earned by SOEs.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2006)