First-tier city residents dis state companies

Guangzhou (CNS) -- Residents in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong, three representatives of China's most developed cities, are expressing discontent with how most state-owned enterprises are performing their public responsibilities, according to a survey released by the Canton Public Opinion Research Center on Tuesday.

Specifically, nearly half of those interviewed are dissatisfied with the monopolies' control of product and service prices. While costs are supposed to be contained within a stable and affordable range, almost 70 percent of survey participants regard them as more extravagant than those set by private and foreign companies.

State petroleum, chemical, communications, and banking firms and institutes are the main targets.

About 60 percent blame oil companies for soaring oil prices and insufficient supply.

Half complained about heavy and mandatory bank charges, as well as miserable service quality.

State-owned airline companies and railway operations barely passed muster with the public.

The survey sample was collected by telephone interview, covering old city zones and 90 percent of newly-expanded urban areas in all three metropolises. All residential telephone numbers come from a data base under the full proprietary intellectual property right of the research center.