Finance chiefs to skip Tokyo meetings

The Chinese central bank governor and finance minister will skip the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group that are taking place in Tokyo this week as relations between the two Asian powers remain tense.

The place of Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, the central bank, will be taken by his deputy, Yi Gang, who will deliver a speech on Sunday, according to an event listing on the IMF's website.

"We were informed two days ago that Governor Zhou's schedule might require him to cancel his lecture in Tokyo," an IMF spokeswoman said.

"If Zhou is not going to attend, it is truly unfortunate as the annual meeting in Tokyo is a very important event," the Financial Times quoted Osamu Fujimura, the Japanese chief cabinet secretary, as saying.

"In any case, economic exchanges between Japan and China are very important, so we hope to smooth bilateral communications broadly."

Koriki Jojima, Japanese finance minister, who took up his position 10 days ago, said it was "regrettable" that the two men won't attend the meetings, adding that "from the global perspective, we will continue to communicate with China".

Besides Yi, the Chinese delegation to Tokyo will be led by Zhu Guangyao, vice-minister of finance, Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday, suggesting that Finance Minister Xie Xuren will also miss the conference.

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