CHINA'S centrally-administered state-owned enterprises suffered a 26-percent tumble in their profits in the first 11 months of this year to 683 billion yuan (US$99.7 billion), the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has said.

Li Rongrong, chief of the commission, said the SOEs should not dismiss their workers in the first instance and that salaries of senior executives should be reduced ahead of the workers.

Of the 143 SOEs, 75 companies posted a profit growth in the period while petrochemical and power firms suffered the sharpest fall in earnings, the commission said. The combined revenue of the SOEs rose 20.2 percent on a yearly basis to 10.76 trillion yuan in the period, with 119 of them posting growth, the commission said.

The SOEs suffered a severe situation due to the global financial turmoil and their inventories grew amid declining profitability and inadequate operating capital, Li said at the commission's annual meeting on Monday.

He encouraged SOEs to take advantage of the economic slowdown to buy strategic natural resources and introduce advanced technologies.

The companies should monitor closely raw material prices and changes in the international capital and currency markets, and adopt effective measures to minimize the impact from the financial crisis, Li added. He also urged them to speed up the reform of their shareholding structure next year and inject prime assets into their listed arms.

The Chinese government will offer 54.78 billion yuan to the SOEs to help them counter the global economic recession. About 49 percent of the money, or 27 billion yuan, will be used to increase the central government's holdings in the SOEs.

About 36 percent, or 19.63 billion yuan, will help the SOEs which were hit by natural disasters this year, and 8.15 billion yuan will be used to restructure industries.