China Exim Bank says no timetable for its going public

2007-10-19 10:15:46


Special Report: 17th CPC National Congress

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Export-Import Bankof China (China Exim Bank) said on Thursday there is still no timetable for itto go public.

Plans to restructure the policy bank into acommercial one are still under discussion before they are to be finalized by thePeople's Bank of China, said Li Ruogu, governor of China Exim Bank, at a pressbriefing on the sideline of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party ofChina.

Even after its commercialization, the bank will stillwork to promote foreign economic cooperation. "We won't turn to domesticrailway, road or real estate projects," Li said.

The bank will provide normal banking services butwill seek little profit, "just enough to cover our costs", he added.

Compared with the business reshuffle, Li saidmanagement reform is more important to ensure sound operation and preventnon-performing loans (NPL). His bank currently records a NPL ratio of around 2.5percent.

In an effort to rein in China's huge trade surplus,which hit 185.65 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of this year,China Exim Bank has granted 20 billion U.S. dollars of supportive fund topromote Chinese imports from other countries, Li said.

China's trade surplus totaled 177.47 billion U.S.dollars for the whole of 2006, according to the General Administration ofCustoms.

Li said his bank has no immediate plan to issueforeign currency bonds overseas, given China's present ample foreign exchangereserves. "Nor are we planning to introduce strategic investors from overseas inthe short-and medium-term, let's say in five years."

China Exim Bank received approval from the centralbank in July to issue two billion yuan worth of Renminbi bonds in Hong Kong.

China Exim Bank, founded in 1994, was solely owned bythe government. It serves to boost the nation's foreign trade and economiccooperation by providing policy financing, on lending foreign government loansand lending Chinese Government Concessional Loans.

It has 10 business branches and five representativeoffices nationwide and three overseas representative offices in South Africa,Paris and St. Petersburg.