In which cities are the headquarters of the 100 centrally administered state-owned enterprises distributed?

Another new central SOE officially makes its debut! On October 20, National Data Group Co., Ltd. was officially established in Xiong'an New Area, Hebei Province. So far, the number of industrial central SOEs directly supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council has reached 100.

Which cities are these 100 central SOEs distributed in?

Beijing alone hosts 64 of them. The second place goes to Xiong'an New Area, which is a bit unexpected, where the number of central SOEs has reached 9. The third place is Shanghai, with 6 central SOEs. In addition, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Wuhan each have 3 central SOEs, and Guangzhou has 2.

01

The term "central SOE" that people usually refer to is actually a relatively broad concept.

According to the relationship between supervision and investors, central SOEs fall into several different categories. The most well-known ones are the industrial central SOEs directly supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, such as China National Nuclear Corporation, PetroChina, Sinopec, State Grid, China Mobile, etc. These enterprises cover important industrial fields including energy, electric power, petrochemicals, aerospace, communications, automobiles, and steel.

These industrial central SOEs are the central SOEs that people often mention in the general sense. It should be noted that not all central SOEs are supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

There are three other types of central SOEs that perform the responsibilities of investors under the authorization of the State Council by the Ministry of Finance, including 4 central SOEs with special functions, about 27 financial central SOEs, and more than 100 cultural central SOEs.

The 4 central SOEs with special functions are respectively China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., China Post Group, China National Tobacco Corporation, and Beidahuang Agriculture Reclamation Group. Most of them are evolved from the original industry administrative departments, undertaking nationwide basic public services, with strong public attributes, and do not take pure market profit as their primary goal.

There are 27 financial central SOEs in total, such as the four major state-owned banks, China Development Bank, PICC, CITIC Group, China Everbright Group, etc.

More than 100 central cultural enterprises, such as China Publishing Group, China World News & Communications Center, China Oriental Performing Arts Group, etc., are mainly engaged in publishing and media, literary and artistic creation, and international cultural communication, putting social benefits first and integrating social benefits with economic benefits.

This article focuses on the 100 industrial central SOEs directly supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and where their headquarters are located. Let's go through them city by city.

02

Beijing remains the absolute hub of central SOE headquarters. Among the 100 industrial central SOEs, 64 are located in Beijing alone.

Why Beijing?

First of all, Beijing is the city with the most concentrated national decision-making and management resources. The larger the scale of a central SOE and the more complex its business, the more departments and resources it needs to coordinate. Fields such as energy security, State Grid construction, oil supply, major projects, and national defense science and technology involve a large number of cross-regional and cross-departmental coordination work. It is obviously more convenient to set up the headquarters in Beijing.

On the other hand, Beijing has a long-formed cluster of central SOE headquarters. When a large central SOE settles in Beijing, it does not just bring an office building, but also brings management personnel, professional service institutions, scientific research resources, and upstream and downstream enterprises. The more concentrated the headquarters, the easier it is for resources to gather; the more concentrated the resources, the more motivation the headquarters have to stay here.

Of course, this only counts the industrial central SOEs. If we add the financial and cultural central SOEs, Beijing's advantage will be even more prominent.

Following Beijing is the high-profile Xiong'an New Area.

Data shows that there are 9 industrial central SOEs with registered headquarters in Xiong'an New Area, which are: China Huaneng Group, China Datang Corporation, China Huadian Corporation, China Star Network, National Data Group, China Mineral Resources Group, Sinochem Holdings, China Chengtong Holdings Group, and China National Agricultural Development Group.

In many people's impression, Xiong'an is still a new city under construction, but in just a few years, it has become the most important bearing place for the non-capital functions of Beijing. Together with the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center, Xiong'an New Area forms the "two new wings" of Beijing.

In addition, Shanghai has 6 industrial central SOEs, namely China State Shipbuilding Corporation, COMAC, China Baowu Steel Group, COSCO Shipping, China Eastern Airlines, and China Electrical Equipment Group. Besides, Shanghai also hosts one financial central SOE, the Bank of Communications, whose investor responsibilities are performed by the Ministry of Finance.

As an international center of economy, finance, shipping and trade, Shanghai is also a top-tier industrial hub in China with a complete industrial chain and abundant talent reserve. For central SOEs that need to connect to the global market and rely on high-end manufacturing supporting facilities, it is very suitable to set up their headquarters here.

Hong Kong has 3 central SOEs, namely China Merchants Group, China Resources (Holdings) Co., Ltd., and China National Travel Service Group; Shenzhen has 3 central SOEs, namely China Electronics Corporation, China General Nuclear Power Group, and Overseas Chinese Town Group. China Electronics Corporation moved its headquarters from Beijing to Shenzhen in December 2021.

Wuhan has 3 central SOEs, namely China Three Gorges Corporation, Dongfeng Motor Corporation, and China Information and Communication Technologies Group. Wuhan is the only city among the six provincial capitals in central China that hosts a central SOE headquarters, which shows its strategic position in the six central provinces.

Guangzhou has 2 central SOEs, namely China Southern Power Grid and China Southern Airlines. The distribution of the remaining 10 central SOEs is as follows: Nyingchi City, Xizang (Yajiang Group), Changchun (FAW Group), Qiqihar (China First Heavy Industries), Harbin (Harbin Electric Corporation), Chengdu (Dongfang Electric Corporation), Anshan (Ansteel Group), Ganzhou (China Rare Earth Group), Tianjin (China Resources and Environment Group), Chongqing (Changan Automobile), and Macao (Nam Kwong Group).

03

From the perspective of urban agglomerations, among the 100 central SOEs supervised by the SASAC, 74 are located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (64 in Beijing, 9 in Xiong'an New Area, 1 in Tianjin), ranking first.

The second place goes to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with a total of 9 central SOEs (3 in Shenzhen, 3 in Hong Kong, 2 in Guangzhou, 1 in Macao); the third place is the Yangtze River Delta region, with a total of 6 central SOEs, all located in Shanghai; the three northeastern provinces have 4 central SOEs in total (1 in Harbin, 1 in Qiqihar, 1 in Changchun, 1 in Anshan); the central region has 4 central SOEs (3 in Wuhan, 1 in Ganzhou); the southwestern region has 3 central SOEs (1 in Chengdu, 1 in Chongqing, 1 in Nyingchi).

At present, there are still many provinces that do not host any industrial central SOE headquarters. Major economic provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Fujian, Anhui and Henan still do not have a single industrial central SOE headquarters.

In fact, the site selection of many central SOE headquarters is largely related to the industrial endowment of the city.

For example, the headquarters of China State Shipbuilding Corporation is located in Shanghai, because Shanghai is the birthplace of China's shipbuilding industry with a complete industrial system; Shenzhen is a key hub of the national electronic information industry, so China Electronics Corporation moved its headquarters there;

Ganzhou in Jiangxi Province has absolute advantages in rare earth resources and industrial chain across the country, so China Rare Earth Group is headquartered there; the northeastern region has a solid foundation of heavy industry, so FAW Group is located in Changchun, and China First Heavy Industries is settled in Qiqihar.

Therefore, provinces and cities that do not have central SOE headquarters can actively strive for the relocation and settlement of central SOE headquarters in the future by combining their own industrial advantages.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "City War", author: Tinghai Moyu, published with authorization from 36Kr.