Chinese firms outperform US rivals in 2008: survey
07 Sep 2009
Top 500 companies in China outperformed their US counterparts in profitability for the first time last year, a survey conducted by a business group China Enterprise Confederation has found.
Net profits of China's best-performing firms totalled $171 billion in 2008, compared with US firms' $99 billion, according to the survey modelled on the Fortune 500 survey.
"Chinese enterprises enjoy relatively better policies and domestic market environment," the China Daily quoted Wang Jiming, vice president of the China Enterprise Confederation, as saying. "But Chinese companies still lag behind the world's leading enterprises in resource allocation, innovation, international presence, business models and corporate culture," he added.
He attributed this to a better business climate in China vis-à-vis the US ridden by the financial market crisis and the creeping recession.
"Chinese enterprises enjoy relatively better policies and domestic market environment," China Daily quoted Wang Jiming, vice president of the China Enterprise Confederation, as saying. "But Chinese companies still lag behind the world's leading enterprises in resource allocation, innovation, international presence, business models and corporate culture," he added.
Chinese companies also saw their profits fall 13.2 per cent in 2008 but much lower than the 85 per cent drop in profits of the Fortune 500 companies.
The performance of China's top 500 companies in 2008 showed the financial crisis had less of an impact on the Asian economies than on their western counterparts, CEC vice-president Wang Jiming said.
Sinopec, Asia's largest oil refiner, with revenue of $215 billion (1.5 trillion yuan) in 2008, topped the list while China's biggest lender Industrial and Commercial Bank of China ranked fourth on the list with a turnover of $342 billion (490 billion yuan).