China Merges CEC, Great Wall Computer Group

China Electronics Corporation (CEC) is merging with the China Great Wall Computer Group, having received approval from the State Council's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission earlier this week.

That's according to Chinese media reports originating out of Beijing. State-owned

The move will make CEC the biggest electronics company in China; earlier this year it merged with five other domestic Chinese electronics companies. CEC currently has some 34,000 employees and total assets of approximately $4.9 billion (39.6 billion yuan). Great Wall, meanwhile, has some 10,000 employees and current assets of approximately $1.5 billion (12.2 billion yuan).

Combined with the six other smaller companies that are part of the state-approved merger, CEC's worth will approach some $7 billion.

The move was a policy-driven one, according to media reports. The Chinese government has embarked on an initiative to reduce the number of large state-owned enterprises in the electronics and IT industries, as well as to boost the competitiveness of domestic companies in these sectors.

 to one-third and boosting the competitiveness with domestic and foreign counterparts, according to the commission. While CEC reportedly generated some $1.8 billion(14.98 billion yuan) in revenues in the first half of this year; it generated just $7 million in profit (57.45 million yuan), derived from just a few of its more than 150 subsidiaries.