Stricter controls likely on SOE investments

Central State-owned enterprises should avoid excessive investment in what might be considered non-core activities, but must remain open to alternative business opportunities as their own industries contract.

This's according to Xu Baoli, a director at the research center of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, who told China Daily that a degree of caution is still paramount in any investment.

During its annual conference, involving 118 central SOEs' heads in December, SASAC demanded companies look to both diversify, but also consolidate their activities in 2013, in an effort to combat the effects of the economic slowdown.