The priorities were determined at a three-day national conference on finance held by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council.

Senior Chinese leaders, including Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji, Li Ruihuan, Hu Jintao, Wei Jianxing, Li Lanqing attended the meeting which concluded in Beijing Thursday.

Addressing the meeting, Jiang, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee enlarged on the guiding principles and major tasks for the financial sector in the future.

During his speech to the meeting, Premier Zhu listed the specific goals needed to improve financial supervision and regulation, planned reforms of the state-owned commercial banks and other priorities.

The meeting called for more effort in dealing with the problems plaguing the country's financial sector, such as inadequate supervision and regulation, a lack of sound operational skills in financial companies and an indifferent sense of social credit, loose management, a shortage of financial professionals and insufficient financial services and a lack of new ideas.

The meeting also set out the major targets for the country's financial sector during the period from 2001-2005, which include vigorous and efficient supervision and improved regulation, sound operational methods for financial companies, significant improvement in asset quality and financial returns, as well as in financial markets, financial services and corporate competitiveness.

The meeting stressed the importance of supervision and regulation, describing them as the most important factors in the financial sector.

Improved supervision and regulation to reduce risk and maintain financial stability is the basis for further financial reform and development, and the way to safeguard national economic security, the meeting pointed out.

The aim of financial supervision is to ensure open, fair and orderly competition in the financial markets in accordance with the law, to prevent systematic risks, and to protect the legitimate rights and interests of depositors, investors and policyholders, the meeting noted.

It called on regulatory bodies from banking, securities and insurance sectors to raise their standard of supervision through improving supervision regulations, systems, and means and methods.

The meeting described the wide-ranging reforms of the state-owned commercial banks as the focal point for the whole financial reform, because they have been playing a very important role in the country's economic and social development.

The state-owned banks were called on to improve constitutional reforms and follow prudent accounting principles and strict information disclosure systems, to lower their ratios of non-performing assets, and improve their profitability.

The meeting noted qualified commercial banks solely owned by the state might be reorganized into share-holding commercial banks in which the state has the controlling share. The shares may be listed when the time is right.

The meeting repeated that the policy of regulating and cultivating the securities market will remain unchanged, adding efforts should be made to crack down harder on irregularities.

It also called for the construction of a social credit system, including corporate and individual credibility.

Senior officials from the Party and the central government and leading provincial officials and financial officials were among those attending the meeting.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2002)