Top 500 Chinese Enterprises 2008 Released      

By Lily Wang   
The top 500 Chinese Enterprises for 2008 are released by China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) on August 30th, 2008. China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), Asia's leading refinery, remains the 1st for the four consecutive years in the Top 500 Chinese Enterprises, based on the revenue of RMB1.22 trillion for 2007. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) ranks the 3rd in the list with the revenue of RMB1.0 trillion while it occupies the first place on the net profit list by RMB11.3 billion.
   According to the report, the total revenue of the top 500 Chinese Enterprises reached US$2.99 trillion (1 US dollar=RMB7.3046, calculated under the exchange rate in 2007), a year-on-year increase of 25.0%. The total assets were US$8.17 trillion, up 13.2%. The total profits were US$188.4 billion. Revenues, profits and assets were equivalent to 12.67%, 11.85% and 7.79% of the global top 500 for 2008 respectively, compared with 10.7%, 6.5% and 7.8% respectively in 2007. The growing proportion of revenues and profits indicates that Chinese companies have become more competitive and profitable.
   There are 23 petroleum/chemical firms involved in the list, including Sinochem Corporation (11th based on revenue), China National Offshore Corporation (CNOOC, 22nd), China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina, 41st), Shaanxi Yanchang Group Company Ltd. (93rd), China National Chemical Engineering Group Corporation (126th), Shanghai Huayi Group Company Ltd. (145th), New Hope Group Co., Ltd. (166th), Shandong Haihua Group Co., Ltd. (216th) and Yuntianhua Group Co., Ltd. (219th), etc. except for Sinopec Group and CNPC mentioned above.
   331 state-owned or state-held firms are involved in the Top 500 Chinese Enterprises for 2008, a year-on-year decrease of 18 firms. However, the number of private firms in the list 2008 increased to 98 from 89 in 2007.
   According to an executive of CEC, private firms have grown more robust through taking advanced technology and management from multinationals. They accounted for approximately one fifth of the country's top 500 enterprises.
   "Although the growth of net profits for the top 500 Chinese enterprises is 19 times faster than that of the world's top 500, Chinese enterprises still lag behind in innovation, investment in R & D and the global business. In the China's top 500 companies, it is reported only 39 of them can generate overseas sales at least 30% of their revenues. R & D spending accounted for only 1.32% of the total revenues, far lower compared with the international average of 3% to 5%", said Wang Jiming, Deputy President of CEC.
   Most of Chinese enterprises still depend on relatively low labor cost for making profits rather than brands and technologies, according to an analyst.