China yet to find its own way for corporate governance, central bank chief

China will not copy the international practice in corporate governance for enterprises that are carrying out reform, said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, in Hainan Saturday.

Zhou made the remarks during the High Level Dialogue of Ministers at the 2005 conference of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in this coastal town of southernmost China's Hainan Province.

Zhou said that Asia, which has experienced two financial crises,discovered that many problems in listed companies stemmed, directly or indirectly, from corporate governance. On the Chinese mainland, the exercise of appropriate corporate governance has become a major part of corporate reform, and has been even seen asthe synonym of reform, he said.

Zhou believed that corporate governance is closely related to anation's culture, bearing the characteristics of the nation. On the Chinese mainland, there is uncertainty about how to build a corporate governance structure through a combination of international practice and Chinese characteristics, he said.

Zhou said China is actively investigating the corporate-governance-based reform of enterprises, however, there exists some uncertainties in this respect.

Corporate governance is also of significance for the reform that is under way in financial institutions on the Chinese mainland, Zhou added.

The High Level Dialogue of Ministers was an innovation of the 2005 BFA conference. It aims to provide a platform for entrepreneurs to communicate with senior government officials face-to-face and help them to establish full awareness of industrial polices.

Source: Xinhua