Chinese state-owned banks are investigating the possibility of establishing share-holding systems so as to improve performance, said an official in Beijing Tuesday.

At the first annual meeting of the US-China Business Dialogue, Zhang Xiaoqiang, secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China would treat these banks as self-responsible companies and reform them.

He believed Chinese banks, since China's entry to the World Trade Organization, were developing healthily with competition and cooperation with foreign counterparts.

Zhang said the interests of the banks had increased with the development of China's market economy, but problems remained and there was a long way to go.

He said China would expand business areas, clients and geographic areas for foreign banks which had entered the market. He hoped foreign banks could jointly invest with Chinese banks or take shares in Chinese share-holding banks so as to compete and develop together.

The US-China Business Dialogue was set up Tuesday by the Chinese Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the US Chamber of Commerce. Annual meetings will be held in China and the United States by turn.

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2003)