BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Profits of China's 161 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) owned and operated by the central government reached 688.77 billion yuan in the first 11 months of the year, up 18.9 percent over the same period last year.

The total profit of central SOEs is expected to reach 720 billion yuan (92.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006, Li Rongrong, director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said Tuesday at a press conference.

Sales revenue of the SOEs between January and November reached 7,298.4 billion yuan, up 21.8 percent year on year; and they paid 614.65 billion yuan in taxes, up 23.5 percent, Li said.

Better returns and the quality of the state-owned assets have been optimized since the SASAC was set up in 2003.

Preliminary statistics show that between 2004 and 2006, the revenue of the core businesses of the central SOEs increased 78.8 percent while profits increased 140 percent.

Over the past three years, the average annual increase in total assets and sales revenue of the central SOEs registered 1.1 trillion yuan. The average annual increase of profits exceeded 100 billion yuan, and the average annual increase in taxes paid topped 100 billion yuan, Li said.