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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in Beijing Sunday that in recent
years, the state-owned commercial banks have made some progress,
but problems are numerous.
When answering a question from a journalist of the South
China Morning Post, Wen said the biggest problem existing in
China's banking system is that the ratio of non-performing loans
(NPL) is high, which has reached nearly two trillion yuan,
accounting for 20 percent of the total.
He also said that nowadays the state-owned banks do not perform
very well. The fundamental reasons lie in institution and
mechanism.
The central government has made a decisive move on adopting a
share-holding reform in Bank of China (BOC) and China Construction
Bank (CCB) and has injected US$45 billion of capital in the banks.
The measures have received generally positive response from home
and abroad.
"I want to make clear that the banking reform we took this time
is to really push our state-owned commercial banks to be the real
modern commercial banks," he pointed out.
He said the leadership of the two banks must take measures to
ensure the safety of the capitals injected by the state, at the
same time shoulder the responsibility of lowering the NPL
ratio.
He also said the management and the competence of the staff
inside the state-owned banks is key to the success of the banking
reform.
"This is our last-ditch battle. We could not afford any failure.
We must take decisive measures to ensure a successful reform," he
stressed.?
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2004)
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