BEIJING -- The State Council, China's cabinet, on Wednesday released a guideline on corporate governance structure at state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The guideline clarifies relations between investors, the board of directors, managers and the board of supervisors at state firms, with detailed clarifications of their obligations and responsibilities.

Corporate articles should play a basic role in management of the firms to regulate the activities of different bodies, the guideline stressed.

Although most state firms already have established corporate systems, problems such as unclear responsibilities and lack of checks and balances still exist, the State Council noted.

China hopes to boost the efficiency of SOEs, make them operate in accordance with market principles and assume responsibility for their own profits, losses and risks, according to the guideline, which sets a goal of basically completing the reforms by 2017.

China has thousands of SOEs and more than 100 are directly administered by the central authority. These enterprises are the backbone of the economy, but their monopolies in many areas, unchecked spending and inefficiency are often the source of public complaints.

In a government work report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang in March, China pledged to deepen SOE reform in 2017, promising measures such as introducing a mixed-ownership system and more efforts to make SOEs leaner,healthier, and perform better.