The State-owned Asset Supervision & Administration Commission announced today that China will carry out employee stock ownership reform in some state owned enterprises.

"The pilot program will start this year and lasts for two years. Then at the end of 2018 we will decide whether we should expand the program or not," said Bai Yingzi, Director of Bureau of Enterprise Reform, SASAC.

The state asset regulator says the pilot program will be carried out on the condition that state-owned capital takes a dominant control in the company. Only certain staff can become share holders and the amount of shares that they can hold will not be evenly distributed. The regulator also says that the total amount of shares that employees can hold should not exceed 30 percent.