China

By Stephen Green, head of the Asia programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London

The Bank of China (BOC) reported a strong growth in factoring business in the first quarter of this year, with international factoring surging to a 593 per cent increase year-on-year and domestic factoring growing by 166.4 per cent.

BCR has today added the latest analysis of the Chinese factoring market, from the soon to be published World Factoring Yearbook 2003 to its factorscan.com website.

A source at the China Banking Sector Regulatory Commission (CBSRC) revealed that the commission will declare its establishment this week.

China Construction Bank (CCB) and China Export & Credit Insurance Corp. (CECIC) have signed an overall cooperation agreement and a long- and medium-term business cooperation agreement.

The yuan isn't undervalued and China should stick to its policy for a stable yuan, according to Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd., which is controlled by one of the Big Four state-owned commercial banks in China.

Shanghai is planning to create a third city commercial bank by merging more than 230 rural credit cooperatives according to government officials.

Jing Shuping, once branded a "reactionary capitalist" in the Cultural Revolution and banished to a farm, was instrumental in persuading Zhu Rongji, the prime minister, to approve the country's first private bank, Minsheng.

A survey of China's top companies in 2002 has highlighted the extent to which the state sector still overwhelmingly dominates the economy.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) announced Tuesday that the central bank has officially ratified the ICBC to handle factoring business for qualified domestic industrial and commercial enterprises.