Centrally administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) sustained losses of more than 30 billion yuan (US$4.3 billion) in the May 12 earthquake, a senior official said on Wednesday.

More than 3,000 employees of the SOEs either dead, or were injured or missing after the disaster, said Li Rongrong, minister of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

The five companies which suffered the most are Dongfang Electric Corp, Sinohydro Corp, Sate Grid Corp of China, China National Chemical Corp, and China Railway Engineering Corp, Li said.

He said the impact of the earthquake on the general economy, including the SOEs, would be limited as "the sound momentum of economic growth will be maintained".

As enterprises hit by the earthquake account for a small part of the 152 central SOEs, they will not affect overall targets, he said.

A preliminary investigation showed that 14,207 industrial enterprises, both State-owned and private, suffered 67 billion yuan in direct losses in the calamity, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Monday.

Central SOEs have started reconstruction work with power supply and telecommunication services gradually getting back to normal in the quake-hit regions.

SOEs are also playing an important role in relief work with China National Erzhong Group Corp, China Railway Engineering Corp second Bureau and Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Co Ltd of China Aviation Industry Corp dispatching rescue and relief teams, SASAC said.

Companies in power, telecommunications and transportation sectors have made every effort to restore the infrastructure as soon as possible, it said.

SOEs in food, pharmaceutical, light industry, chemical, building material, oil and petrochemical sectors have ramped up production to supply badly needed materials.

By Tuesday, 144 central SOEs had donated money and materials valued at 2.09 billion yuan, including 1.58 billion yuan in cash, SASAC said.

(China Daily May 22, 2008)