The State Council has recently approved the shareholding reform scheme put forward by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the work plans submitted by the Bank of China and China Construction Bank regarding their next steps in shareholding reform, the official Xinhua News Agency said on April 21. This is another important decision for accelerating financing reform and improving the healthy development of the financing industry in the country in line with the guiding principles of the Sixteenth National Congress and the Third Session of the Sixteenth Central Committee of the Party.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is the commercial bank with the largest assets in China and has made enormous contributions to supporting the development of the national economy and the reform of the economic system. Meanwhile it has accumulated greater risks due to historical reasons. In recent years, the bank has made greater progress in the areas of strengthening internal control, improving management and raising efficiency by depending on its own efforts and the support of the national policies. It has basically been qualified for implementing shareholding reform. The State Council has decided to approve the shareholding reform scheme put forward by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on the basis of summarizing pilot experience of shareholding system reforms of Bank of China and China Construction Bank in order to adapt to the needs of the finance opening to the outside world and the economic development in the country.

By People's Daily Online