The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) issued an official circular on January 23 calling for strengthening and improving the building of the CPC organizations in state-owned enterprises, particularly those owned by the central government.

The circular, entitled 'The Proposals on Strengthening and Improving Party Building in Central Enterprises by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Party Committee of the Commission for Supervision and Management of State-owned Properties under the State Council', urges the central and state-owned enterprises to strengthen the political role of Party organizations and push forward managerial reform.

Describing the state-owned enterprises as the pillar of China's national economy and the central companies as the main force playing a leading role in the state economy, the circular said: 'to bring the key role of the state companies, especially the central firms, into full play is a must for adhering to and improving the fundamental socialist economic system, developing the advanced productivity, increasing China's integrated national strength, and consolidating the Party's ruling status.'

The circular puts forward the guiding ideology, general goal and major tasks for strengthening and improving the Party building in the central companies so as to push forward the renovation in their mechanism, technology and management.

The circular proposes that members of the Party committees in a state company may become members of the board of directors, the board of supervisors, and the managerial board by legal procedure, while the members of these boards who are Party members can be allowed to become members of the Party committee.

If qualified, the chairman of the board of directors and the secretary of the Party committee in a state company could be the same one person. But in principle, the chairman of the board and the general manager should be different persons.

The roles of the Party organizations in the state companies are to set the criterion for selecting the managerial personnel, strictly checking the candidates, improving the assessment mechanism, and strengthening supervision.

The circular says that efforts should be made to actively advance the building of Party's work style and the anti-corruption drive in state companies and to probe effective ways for bringing staff workers' role of democratic management into full play and safeguarding their legal rights and interests under the modern corporate system.