On September 20, at the 2023 China Top 500 Enterprises Summit Forum, the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Enterprise Directors Association released the China Top 500 Enterprises list for the 22nd consecutive year, using the previous year's corporate operating revenue as the qualification criterion. The list shows that in 2023, the overall operating revenue of China's top 500 enterprises maintained a steady growth trend, and large enterprises have reached a new level in high-quality development.

2023 China Top 500 Enterprises

Construction industry (40 companies)

Entry threshold steadily rising

The total operating revenue of the 2023 China Top 500 Enterprises reached 108.36 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.74% over the previous year; total assets reached 399.77 trillion yuan, an increase of 27.24 trillion yuan, or 7.31%; the entry threshold has risen for 21 consecutive years, with the 2023 China Top 500 Enterprises entry threshold at 46.998 billion yuan, an increase of 2.373 billion yuan over the previous year.

Wang Zhongyu, President of the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Enterprise Directors Association, stated that despite the complex and severe international environment and the impact of the pandemic beyond expectations, China's large enterprises have adhered to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, actively practiced the new development philosophy, and while achieving steady growth, have overall entered a stage that places greater emphasis on development quality, demonstrating strong development resilience.

Among the large enterprises entering the list, the number of hundred-billion-yuan-level enterprises exceeded 50% for the first time. The number of enterprises in the 2023 China Top 500 with operating revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan increased to 254, a net increase of 10. Among them, 16 enterprises had operating revenue exceeding 1 trillion yuan; State Grid, China National Petroleum Corporation, and Sinopec had operating revenue exceeding 3 trillion yuan; and China State Construction had operating revenue exceeding 2 trillion yuan.

It is worth noting that while total assets grow rapidly, large enterprises also make outstanding social contributions in areas such as taxation and employment. The China Top 500 and the Manufacturing Top 500 achieved dual growth in tax payments and employment. Among them, the 2023 China Top 500 paid total taxes of 4,744.664 billion yuan, an increase of 9.57% over the previous year, with a total workforce of 32.8153 million, an increase of 1.18% over the previous year; the 2023 China Manufacturing Top 500 paid total taxes of 2,235.953 billion yuan, an increase of 18.87% over the previous year, with a total workforce of 14.8356 million, an increase of 5.97% over the previous year.

Innovation capacity continues to improve

From the science and technology investment and R&D data of the listed enterprises, it can be seen that the innovation-driven role of large enterprises has strengthened, the supporting role of science and technology has further improved, and R&D investment and R&D intensity have continued to rise. The 2023 China Top 500 invested a total of 1,578.688 billion yuan in R&D, an increase of 131.221 billion yuan over the previous year, or 9.07%. Average R&D intensity has shown a continuous upward trend, reaching a new high of 1.85%, up 0.04 percentage points from the previous year.

Wang Zhongyu stated that China's large enterprises should effectively play their principal role, continuously strengthen R&D investment, work hard on core technologies, strive for major breakthroughs, and accelerate the realization of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening. They should use a systematic approach to promote the coordination and integration of industrial chains and innovation chains, focus on key layout around the shortcomings of industrial chains and the pain points of innovation chains, fully leverage the supporting role of scientific and technological innovation, and enhance the endogenous driving force of industrial development.

Data shows that the 2023 China Top 500 declared a total of 1,885,300 patents; the number of patent applications increased by 217,300 over the previous year's Top 500, a growth of 13.03%. Among them, 743,400 invention patents were declared, an increase of 10.48% over the previous year's Top 500. The number of invention patents has continued to grow for 5 consecutive years, accounting for 39.43% of patents. The 2023 China Top 500 declared participation in a total of 75,110 standards-setting items, an increase of 171 over the previous year's Top 500 declarations, achieving four consecutive increases in enterprise declarations of participation in standards setting. Enterprises actively participated in international standards setting, declaring participation in a total of 4,992 international standards-setting items.

Gao Rui, associate researcher at the China Enterprise Confederation, believes that innovation is not only the key to enhancing competitive advantage and the solid foundation for promoting core competitiveness and strengthening core functions, but also an important source of increasing innovation value. The stronger an enterprise's innovation capacity, the more prominent its product competitive advantage, and correspondingly the more excess profits it can obtain to improve profitability.