Reconstruction of earthquake-ravaged regions will bring huge business opportunities for major state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council said Wednesday in a statement on its website.

Major SOEs are expected to play an important role in reconstruction, especially in energy, metallurgy, machinery, construction materials, the chemical industry and telecoms services, the commission said.

Accordingly, SOEs are set to maintain fast growth and improve their profit margins, the statement added.

The SASAC also said that the aggregate operating income of 410 major SOEs increased 25.7 percent year-on-year during the January-April period, to 4.68 trillion yuan ($670 billion).

Their export revenues stood at 244.3 billion yuan, up 14.7 percent, it said, adding the growth rate was down significantly from last year.

SASAC added that profits declined 1.3 percent, to about 353 billion yuan, owing to sharp declines at oil and power companies.

The year-earlier growth rate was nearly 35 percent.

Total assets were nearly 19.9 trillion yuan, up 21.7 percent, it added.

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2008)