BEIJING (REUTERS) - China plans to launch several mixed ownership pilot programmes in the oil, natural gas and rail sectors as it deepens reforms of state-owned enterprises, the country's top economic planner said on Sunday (March 6).

As China restructures its state-owned companies, it will also moderately increase investment in infrastructure and public services, Xu Shaoshi, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told reporters at a briefing in Beijing.

In September last year, China issued guidance on reforming state-owned enterprises, including the introduction of so-called mixed ownership of state firms, as part of the most far-reaching reforms of its sprawling and inefficient state sector in two decades.

China has about 150,000 state-owned enterprises, managing more than 100 trillion yuan (S$21 trillion) in assets and employing over 30 million people, according to the official Xinhua news agency.