Central SOEs' profits edge up

The profits of China's centrally administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) totaled 310.7 billion yuan ($49.7 billion) in the first quarter of 2014, up 3.4 percent year-on-year, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said Wednesday.

China has 113 centrally administered SOEs. They paid a total of 482.8 billion yuan in taxes and fees in the first three months, up 3 percent from a year earlier, according to the SASAC.