Wu Jinglian, a leading economist with the Development Research Center of the State Council, said China is in much need of a national credit-rating system to reflect personal, company and governmental credibility.

At a recent forum on guarantees in Shanghai, Wu said that the lack of such a system has resulted in an epidemic of fraudulent activities, which in turn have caused varying degrees of disruption to the country's burgeoning market economy.

He cited examples of bad contract performance, counterfeit commodities, rights infringements, fraud and chain debts in his keynote speech at the forum.

He maintained that a nationwide credit-rating system should start from individuals. A social credit management support system is needed to ensure credit services rate individual as well as enterprise credibility.

The government is urged to play an active role in this regard by the economist.

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2001)