Chinese Vice Premier Huang Ju met Friday with Kenneth Lewis, board chairman and chief executive director of the Bank of America, after the United States bank signed an investment agreement with China Construction Bank (CCB).

Huang said the strategic and cooperative agreement signed by the two banks indicates that China's state-owned commercial bank reform is speeding up and new progress is being made in improving management structures.

CCB is one of the four major state-owned commercial banks. The agreement with the Bank of America, finalized on Friday morning, made CCB the first of the four to have foreign investment.

Huang said he hoped that the CCB will learn advanced management expertise and professional techniques. This will help it improve its capability of risk management and become a competitive, profit- making financial enterprise, he added.

He said he also hoped that the cooperation between CCB and the Bank of America will provide valuable experience for the reform and innovation in China's financial sector.

According to the agreement, the Bank of America, the third- largest US banking group, will invest 2.5 billion US dollars to buy shares in the CCB. As a strategic investor in the CCB, Bank of America also has the option to increase its stake to 19.9 percent.

The deal is so far the largest one-batch investment by an overseas firm in a Chinese company.

When the CCB launches its IPO in the future, the Bank of America will purchase 500 million US dollars-worth of CCB's securities.

Lewis said the Bank of America was delighted with the partnership with the CCB and has full confidence in their future cooperation.

Source: Xinhua