NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday reiterated his government’s commitment to listing state-owned companies on the stock exchanges, saying this would “unlock” their true value.

“Our government is encouraging the listing of public sector enterprises on the stock markets as this would unlock the true value of a company, improve its corporate governance standards and also help it in raising resources for funding future expansion plans,” Manmohan Singh said at a function here.

“Our public sector enterprises have done quite well and they are now poised to grow even faster in years to come,” the prime minister said while addressing delegates at the Scope Excellence Awards function, jointly organised by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (Scope).

To stress his point, he said that in the post-reform period — 1990-91 to 2007-08 — the turnover of state-owned companies has increased nine times and cumulative net profit by more than 35 times.

“The listed ones (on the Bombay Stock Exchange) account for more than 24 percent of the total market capitalisation,” he said, adding: “In terms of market capitalisation, of the top-10 listed companies on the exchange, five are public sector enterprises”.

Maintaining that more and more state-owned units were entering the capital markets, he said they were also striving to become active global players.

“Over the years, the number of public sector enterprises making profits has steadily increased while the number of those which are loss making has been on the decline,” the prime minister said.

Referring to sick and loss-making organisations, he said efforts are being taken to restructure and revive them.

“An amount of Rs.15,250 crore has been provided by the government in the last five years or so as cash and non-cash support to 36 such enterprises. We will continue to take steps to strengthen the public sector,” the prime minister said.