89 Chinese firms makes it to Fortune Global 500 list

The newly released Fortune Global 500 list figures 95 Chinese companies, 89 of them state-owned, showing that the world's fastest growing economy still has plenty of room for improvement.
Despite the booming picture the list might indicate, not all firms on the Chinese mainland are exhibiting strong performance, assistant managing editor with Fortune China Zhou Zhanhong said.
Mostly state-owned mainland companies made the list while few private firms did, which means that the country's economic efficiency still has plenty of room for improvement, he said.
The number of Chinese companies on the list is second only to the US, which has 132 entries. Six firms from Taiwan also made it to the list published by the Forbes magazine, ranking the companies according to their revenue.

The total revenue of the top 95 Chinese companies amounted to USD 5.2 trillion last year, accounting for 17 per cent of the total revenue generated by the 500 companies on the list, the US magazine report said.
China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)and State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) were among this year's top 10 companies globally, ranking fourth, fifth and seventh respectively.

"It is no surprise to see Chinese energy companies performing well on the list, given the huge energy demand in China," Lin Boqiang, director of the China Centre for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.

There are 18 Chinese companies making a debut on this year's list, including BAICGroup, China Minsheng Banking Corp and Shanxi Coking Coal Group.
The number of Chinese companies on the list could reach 110 by 2014, and China might catch up with the US and become the country with the most listed companies by 2015, L Michael Cacace, a senior editor at Fortune said.