The 2011 list of top 500 Chinese companies was jointly released by the China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) and the China Enterprise Directors Association on September 3 in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. It is the 10th such list since its launch in 2002.

Oil refiner Sinopec Group topped the list, followed by oil and gas producer China National Petroleum Corp. and State Grid Corp.

Compared with the 2010 list, the threshold for making this year's list was raised from 11.08 billion yuan ($1.73 billion) to 14.2 billion yuan ($2.22 billion).

The number of members in the "100-billion-yuan club" reached 80, 17 more than in 2010. Besides the top three, another 77 companies, including nine privately owned enterprises (POEs), saw their sales revenues surpass 100 billion yuan ($15.65 billion).

Aggregate revenues of China's top 500 companies in 2010 rose by 31.6 percent year on year to 36.31 trillion yuan ($5.68 billion), and their total assets increased by 18.4 percent to 108.1 trillion yuan ($15.93 billion).

These companies recorded profits of 2.08 trillion yuan ($325.51 billion) in 2010, an increase of 38.67 percent from the previous year. They paid 2.73 trillion yuan ($427.23 billion) in taxes last year, accounting for 37.3 percent of the country's total tax revenue in 2010.

Meanwhile, the number of Chinese companies incorporated into the world top 500 is increasing quickly. Among the 2011 world top 500 there are 58 companies from the Chinese mainland, 15 more than last year. In comparison, only 10 Chinese enterprises ranked on the world top 500 in 2002.

From 2002 to 2011, the sales revenue of China's top 500 increased by an annual average of 22 percent, much higher than the 6.9-percent growth of the world top 500 and 4.1 percent of the U.S. top 500.

"Judging by the past 10 years, large Chinese enterprises are not at all disappointing compared with large enterprises in the United States and the world," said Wang Zhongyu, CEC chairman.

However, there is still a huge gap between China's top 500 and the world's large multinationals.

Short on competitiveness

According to a report of the People's Daily, the average lifespan of China's top 500 stands at just 23 years, and their average sales revenue is only 45.6 percent that of the world top 500.

Meanwhile, among the biggest 10 industries where China's top 500 are distributed, half are monopoly industries or monopolized resource exploitation and utilization industries, such as oil, power, telecommunications and iron industries.

Most of the profits of large Chinese companies are from resource monopoly, scale operation and low costs. This year the biggest 10 profit earners of China's top 500 are all from the state-owned financial sector and monopoly enterprises, while many of the most profitable industries where U.S. top 500 are distributed are technology-intensive ones, such as pharmaceuticals, computer and software.

The 23 industries where no Chinese companies are incorporated in the world top 500 list are highly competitive in consumer research, global brand, core technologies, global supply chains and long-term intensive input in research and development.

"Deficiency in competitive industries reflects a lack of competitiveness for large Chinese enterprises," said Miao Rong, Deputy Director of the Department of Research of CEC.

Large companies often decide technological standards and the direction of industrial development, Miao said. World's 80 percent of input in research and development, 70 percent of technology innovations and 60 percent of technology transfers are completed by the world top 500 companies. However, China's top 500 companies' spending in research and development only accounted for 1.41 percent of their sales revenue. "Growth of most of China's top 500 is not driven by technology," said Miao.

Many of the China top 500 companies have grown through mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Among them, 182 companies reported acquiring 1,112 companies.

In addition, the 2011 China top 500 list is still dominated by state-owned or state-holding enterprises, while only one third are POEs. The structure has not changed during the past 10 years, and the scales of large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is still much larger than those of large POEs.

Enhancing innovation

A CEC report named Tendency, Problems and Suggestions of Development of Chinese Large Enterprises in 2011 says Chinese enterprises need to improve their comprehensive strength and international competitiveness and the government should create an open and fair market competition environment to facilitate development of enterprises.

The report says to be larger and stronger, Chinese enterprises should first enhance their independent innovation capability. Such capability means not only the capability to research and develop core technologies and products, but also the capability of innovating in marketing and management patterns.

"There is no way out if we make no breakthroughs," said Zhang Ruimin, CEO of Haier Group, a state-owned home appliance maker. He said Chinese enterprises have entered an innovation-driven stage. At present enterprises need to be more flexible in marketing and the organizational structures should be changed.

The CEC report says enterprises also need to utilize resources in both domestic and foreign markets, particularly to fully understand investment environments in foreign countries and strengthen cooperation of different enterprises within the industrial chains.

"Many enterprises have little experience in overseas development and are fragile against risks. Enterprises should strengthen cooperation, thus to enhance capability of negotiation with foreign companies and reduce investment costs. For example, enterprises in manufacturing and infrastructure construction industries can work together to develop overseas market," said Li Jianming, Vice Chairman of CEC.

At present the government's supervision and services for large enterprises are not balanced and some problems in the mechanisms involving the development of POEs have not been solved for many years. Many POEs on the 2011 China top 500 list are appealing that the government examine and clear market access restrictions established by supervisors of monopoly industries, formulate mechanisms to promote bilateral flows of capital between SOEs and POEs, regularly examine newly issued laws, regulations and provisions on corporate development so as to create a better environment of laws and policies for the development of POEs.

"Financing difficulty is still the biggest problem restricting development of POEs. When vigorously encouraging and supporting SOEs, the government should also further encourage development of POEs," said Liu Yonghao, President of New Hope Group, a POE ranking 145th on the 2011 China top 500 list.