(Text by Reporter Peng Xuhui) “To supervise state-owned assets is not to ‘keep close tabs on’ the enterprises under the name of ‘preventing the state-owned assets from outflow’, but to constantly perfect the regulatory system of the state-owned assets with the concept of service and gradually delegate more power to the enterprises to let the reform of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises become more powerful, deeper and warmer.” This is the consensus reached by the members of the team of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District and the direction and goal of their work.
Over the past year, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District stuck to the general keynote of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, stuck to the general requirement of high-quality development, and stuck to serving the national strategy and the general goal of the social and economic development in Shanghai. It focused on the key points and overcame difficulties, and with its effort, the functional advantages of the state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises were deeply embodied, the reform and development were firmly promoted, the regulatory effectiveness level of the state-owned enterprises was constantly enhanced, and the foundation of Party building became more and more solid. The commission broke a new ground for the reform and development of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises, as well as for the Party building work with much effort.
Be a Powerful Promoter of the Deep Reform
The assessment of the leaders in state-owned enterprises reflects the inspection of the work results of the Party building work and the operational and management result of the state-owned enterprises conducted by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Committee of the State Council as a backer. The members of the team never stops exploring and thinking about how to firmly keep the assessment, the “key” in hand and reflect the characteristics of the enterprises while underlying the leadership of the Party, and how to give full play to the core role of the Party organizations to the state-owned enterprises in leadership and politics while giving full play to the leading and encouraging functions of the assessment.
For this reason, the team of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District provided “tailored” assessment goals for every state-owned enterprise, including annual goals and tenurial goals. A matching contact system was established between the members of the team and the enterprises. Each of the team members personally visited the enterprises they were responsible for better understanding the situations of the enterprises and making face-to-face discussions on the assessment goals with the teams of the enterprises. After several rounds of negotiation, assessment goals fitting the specific case of every enterprise were eventually set.
However, the state-owned enterprises were facing the business performance assessment, the Party building assessment and the cadre’s assessment, which meant that too many assessments may occupy a considerable amount of time of the enterprises. Then, how to make the assessment sufficient and time-saving? The members of the team of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District repeatedly studied the problem, designed the procedure, and eventually created an assessment procedure involving sessions including work report by the officials, democratic assessment, record inspection and individual interview. They finished the on-site assessment work of 13 district-managed enterprises in a period as short as 4 days. In the assessment process, the members of the team dealt with every detail with patience and stuck to the principle of seeking truth from facts for they knew well that only when they treat the assessment work seriously and strictly would the goals of assessment really be achieved, and the motivation of pursuing higher quality and efficiency of the state-owned enterprises be inspired.
Be a Converter of the Research Results
What are the purposes of the researches and visits? How to convert the research results to specific measures promoting the reform of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises? The answer from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District was—to implement the general accountant system.
The new round of the reform of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises starting from the second half of 2015 proposed to establish a state-owned assets supervision mode centering on “managing assets”. How to “manage assets”? How to “manage assets” well? Through which channels? By which means? Those were all burning questions that the leading officials should answer. For this reason, leading officials of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District conducted a series of research work. By collecting relevant policies, laws, regulations, experience and measures, visiting the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Shanghai and other relevant units to get a hold of the details of the policies, as well as coming closest to the district-managed enterprises to better know their basic financial management conditions, the officials got research information from different parties and took all the information into consideration. They eventually decided to conduct the general accountant designation work in the district-managed enterprises to give full play to the general accountant’s important role in standardizing the financial management of the enterprises and participating in the major decisions of the enterprises, making the analysis on and application of the financial data become the reliable foundation promoting the sustainable development of the enterprises and enhancing the scientific quality of the decisions.
With the exploration and effort of more than one year, by the end of 2017, the general accountants had already been designated to 10 district-managed enterprises. Under the lead of the general accountants, the enterprises newly established and revised 64 systems in total. The general accountants also helped standardize the internal control system, enhance the financial management level and sort the management procedure. Meanwhile, the 10 district-managed enterprises (covering integration system and entrusted enterprises) had added 83 enterprises into the management and control coverage, and the coverage of centralized finance control and management increased from 27.55% before designating the general accountants to 48.72% afterwards.
The reporter learned that recently, the team of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District has started another round of research and investigation and has selected eight subject directions centering on “deepening the reform of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises, resolving the difficulties and pain points of the reform”. The members of the team expressed that the research was only the beginning, and they hoped that the research could ensure a more solid and effective reform of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises.
Be the “Waiters” of the Reform of State-owned Assets and State-owned Enterprises
A sentence always mentioned in the team of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District is that never regard yourself as an “administrator”. They believe that they should conduct the supervision of state-owned assets with the concept of “service”, and should do well as the “waiters” of the reform of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises, thus providing the state-owned enterprises with an energetic development environment.
In 2017, in order to further optimize the layout of the state-owned assets in the region, to promote the centralized and coordinated management of resources in the Suhe Creek area, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District began the transfer work of transferring some of the floors of Tianxing Building to Suhe Creek Company. Locating in the Suhe Creek area, as early as the end of 2015, Tianxing Building had proposed the requirement of transferring the building from Daning Group to Suhe Creek. However, due to its special property rights characteristics, safety hazards, complex lessee situation and the liquidation of relevant assets and charges of both of the transferring parties, the transfer was long delayed. In 2017, Daning Group and Suhe Creek Company reported the problem to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District, asking for mediation for the transfer. The team of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District gave high priority to the problem and was determined to resolve the issue. On the one hand, the team conducted on-site investigation to get a hold of the practical requirements of the two enterprises and the specific case of Tianxing Building. On the other hand, it mediated between multiple parties, striving to formulate a transfer plan fitting the special property rights characteristics of Tianxing Building while accommodating the economic interests of both of the transferring parties and ensuring the safety and stability in the transfer process. Through the untiring efforts lasting a month, a satisfying negotiation result was eventually achieved, and the relevant transfer work was formally conducted at the end of 2017.
In addition, the team of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jing'an District also established a matching contact system, built a training platform for cultivating managers including general accountants, optimized the approval process of the regulatory items, and hired agencies including taxation offices and law firms to provide the enterprises with professional consultation, hoping to create a good environment for promoting the state-owned assets innovation and inspiring the vitality of the state-owned enterprises in the process of fulfilling their duties as “waiters”.