China is aiming to accelerate the development of its fledgling bank card industry in the coming few years, in a bid to promote the use of plastic cards to help improve efficiency of the economy, enhance the transparency of transactions and increase spending, Friday's China Daily reported.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, said the nation's robust economic growth is providing a favorable environment for the acceleration, and the wide application of information technology in the financial sector has laid a solid technical basis to that effect.

The central bank is stepping up work on drafting a new bank card regulation, which will require approval from the State Council to provide legal backup for the industry's healthy growth.

It's also working with other government agencies to draw up a blueprint and formulate favorable policies for the bank card industry and studying ways to better co-ordinate the interests of card issuers, cardholders, merchants and third-party intermediaries.

The bank has made substantial progress in formulating technical standards for the use of IC cards, which are expected to eventually replace the currently prevalent magnetic cards that banks are issuing, according to the newspaper.

Since the country's first bank card was issued in 1985, the industry has witnessed a rapid growth, making China one of the most promising markets for the global bank card business.

A total of 762 million cards had been issued last year, more than 100 million up from a year earlier, while it took 13 years for Chinese banks to bring issuance up to 100 million, central bank statistics indicated.

After linking up all cities in 2003, the national bank card network extended further last year to take in some economically developed counties.

Subsequently, bank cards have been playing a greater role in the economy, with sales through bank cards accounting for some 5 percent of total retail sales last year, up from 2.1 percent in 2001.

The percentage has topped 20 percent in some more developed cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong Province, according to the central bank.

Credit card issuance witnessed explosive growth last year, surging 263 percent from 2003 to 980 million.

The major reason for the unexpectedly fast growth in 2004 is the improvement in the banks' technical preparations that helped release the depressed demand for credit cards, said the newspaper.