SOEs told to participate in subsidized housing projects

BEIJING - Chinese State-owned enterprises under the administration of the central government - so-called Central SOEs - have been ordered to "actively participate" in building government-subsidized homes, which is the country's top priority this year.

As part of its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), the central government pledged earlier this year to build 10 million units of government-subsidized housing in 2011 and 36 million units in total by 2015.

The government is believed to be under great pressure to find the money needed to support such a large-scale construction program.